Moral of the Story

Come one; come all!

2011-05-28T15:55:00.001-07:00

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.

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Coming Home!

2011-05-17T18:37:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-16T13:06:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-05-09T10:55:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-02T14:14:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-04-25T11:27:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-04-20T13:28:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2011-04-13T15:16:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-04-07T13:12:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-29T19:04:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-03-21T10:19:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-14T18:16:00.000-07:00

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

2011-02-28T14:12:00.000-08:00

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...

2011-02-21T08:52:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-14T09:28:00.000-08:00

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...

2011-02-07T08:28:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-01-31T07:45:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-24T15:43:00.000-08:00

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"

2011-01-18T16:06:00.000-08:00

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"

2011-01-10T09:27:00.000-08:00

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

Rain Shower and Shower of Miracles

2011-01-05T15:20:00.000-08:00

So it’s been a long time since I’ve written. Sorry about the wait, but it has been a crazy last couple of weeks with Christmas, New Year’s, new companion, mini missionary, and everything! It has been a little difficult but the blessings always outweigh the trials. I have seen a ton of tender mercies these last couple of weeks and I hope you enjoy hearing about them.

La Navidad - I possibly had the best Christmas in my life. The only thing that it lacked was dressing up as a wicked Nephite in the family nativity. (That will always be my highlight of Christmas.) But this year was equally special because I was in the Mission Argentina Cordoba choir of missionaries. We went around singing Christmas hymns in parks, Wal-Mart and everything. We were singing at a park, and a news station started video taping us. And we sang in a shopping mall and I got to do a ton of contacts and give out Books of Mormon, and I saw and talked to my favorite member family in the mission. Huge tender mercy for me. And we sang with Pte. Salas´ family. It was just a ton of fun. And when we were traveling in a bus, we were still singing some of Christmas carols in English. It was a ton of fun and I think the people liked it! It was crazy to be singing Christmas carols in 100 degree weather, but I was definitely feeling the Christmas spirit. We also had a kilo of ice cream and met up with the other hermanas – Hna. Mortensen and Hna. Dickey! It was so much fun! We continued singing carols in my area for members and investigators. And then we returned to the pension and ate tacos and enjoyed some fun Christmas traditions – American and Argentinean. We went up and slept on the roof and got to see all of the fireworks. There was a ton!! And then the next day we opened presents. I opened mine a little bit early and gave most of them away. But I loved it all the same. After, we had a party with the zone. We played signs aka señales (Spanish style) and werewolf (it´s like mafia/murder in the dark). We changed the game a little bit so that it was mission style. It was a little sacrilegious but a lot of fun! But the highlight of the day was calling home and talking to the family! Best Christmas ever!

Nuevo Año – We ate banana pancakes in honor of Jack Jackson’s song with some ice cream on the side. It was delicious! And then we went to bed on time and woke up at midnight to see all of the fireworks. It was crazy! There were so many fireworks. They don’t have any laws against it here, so I saw some pretty crazy illegal fireworks. I kind of want to buy some for home. (jk!) But they were pretty intense, so we got too scared to go on the roof. But it was still fun to watch them through our window. The next day we had an asado with the zone and played some soccer. It was a pretty fun day, and I was very grateful to have time to take a nap. It was lovely! And then we tried to find a cyber to write home, but everything was completely closed! I’m embarrassed about it now, but I got pretty upset about that. So that’s why it has been a while since I’ve written. I’ll try to make up for it today…

Step-Daughter – So we had a little surprise come to us for the New Year. A new hermana arrived in the mission, and she got called to be my companion. She has 6 months in the mission, but she had problems with her visa. Hna. Martinez is from El Salvador, and she’s a pretty neat girl. She’s 29 years old and kind of timid but sweet. I kind of felt like her step mom. In mission terms, when you train someone new in the mission, you become their mom. So Hna. McDonald is my daughter, along with Hna. Mortensen. But Hna. Martinez has already been trained, but I had to show her a little bit about the Cordoba mission and how we do it here, along with the traditions and customs of Argentina. Thus I’m not the mom but I’m kind of a step-mom. But it only lasted a week. She is now off to bigger and better things.

Terrible Trio – So for a week we were in a trio. I was kind of training Hna. McDonald and Hna. Martinez. But it was pretty difficult because Hna. Martinez doesn’t understand English and Hna. McDonald is still pretty new to understand all of the Spanish. So I spent a week translating and trying to say everything twice. Let me tell you, it’s not as easy as it looks. But I’ve decided that trios are not my favorite thing. I’m glad that it was just a week.

Mini Misionera – So yesterday we got a mini missionary that ended up being the companion of Hna. Martinez. Hna. Quinteros is her mini, and she’s pretty much amazing! I met her at the beginning of my mission. She’s this way cute member that always has a smile. I was way excited to see her. It’s a little hard for Hna. Martinez because she doesn’t know the area, investigators, members… But I plan their days, and we share investigators and contacts and everything. It’s great to have four hermanas in the ward. Yesterday was a little hard because it was their first day, and they got lost. All they had was the map and the Spirit. We had lunch at 1, and they weren’t there. Hna. McDonald and I left to go search for them, but we didn’t have too much luck. It was pretty crazy, but they showed up about a half hour late. But I think they’ll be fine. We just have to put all of our trust in the Lord, and everything will turn out fine.

Rain Shower and Shower of Miracles – We’ve been getting rain every day at about 3 o´clock. We try to get into an appointment; and if not, we rely on our little umbrella. I’m sad because I used to love rain, but the mission has kind of changed my opinion. But we are happy to see all of the miracles that are happening. We gave all of the members Books of Mormon to give to their friends, and we received a ton of references at church. And we were able to put some more baptism dates. We are excited to baptize in January! We had an appointment with an older lady named A_. She has had a ton of problems in her life, and she practically asked us if she could be baptized. The Lord is blessing us a ton. We are happy to see the miracles!

One Year in Argentina – Yesterday I completed my one year birthday in Argentina. I made a list to eat all of the things that are just specially made in Argentina – facturas, criollos, dulce de leche, alfajor, empanada, y grido! It was a pretty fun scavenger hunt, and we even did a service for a member so that she could practice her English and Hna. McDonald could practice her castellano. We even had an amazing charla with a family. We’ve been working with D_ and C_ for a while, and C__ told us that she knows that this church is the most perfect church on the earth. Overall, it was a great day!

Package from Liz - Today we are spending the day in Centro and we ate a Mexican burrito and visited the Catholic church and we are going to go shopping next. The highlight of my day was to receive my mail and I got a package from Liz Huber. She is pretty much amazing! I have to tell you why. I had just finished my first journal in Argentina yesterday. And I’ve been looking for another one but I haven’t found the time or the money. But the package came today, and she gave me a new journal! It was the most perfect thing that I have ever seen! I loved it! And this journal is pretty much amazing! It is full of scriptures and thoughts and everything. I just love when I can see the miracles that happen in my life. I love when God blesses me through friends, family, companions, and other people.

I just have to tell you that I love all of the blessings and miracles that I am seeing in my life. I am so incredibly blessed! I know I am where I need to be. I know that this church is true and we need to share this gospel with everyone that is ready to listen. I know that Christ lives, and I testify that Heavenly Father loves me. I’m grateful for this New Year to put goals so that I grow closer to Them. Thank you for all of your support, love, and prayers! I love you all!

Cuidense,
Hna. Ellsworth

Story Time with Me

2010-12-20T10:54:00.000-08:00

Ok, I’m a little pressed for time. But I have three quick stories for you all or all y´all. Sorry, here we go… Story Time with Hna. Ellsworth.

So we found this lady knocking doors this week. She seemed pretty interested but had a little difficulty accepting that the Book of Mormon is scripture. So we were explaining and testifying about the Book of Mormon when we got interrupted by a neighbor. While she was up, she decided to get us some water. Hna. McDonald quickly told her that she did not need water because she had a trusty filtered water bottle. You see, she’s a little worried about the water here because it makes everyone sick, except me, I hope. Anyways, she didn’t hear her and got her a glass anyways. Well, the motherly carácter that I am, I decided to chug down the water of Hna. McDonald’s before the lady saw. Sometimes they get offended when we tell them their water is not clean. So I was chugging it pretty fast, when all of a sudden, I started choking. But I closed my mouth so that it wouldn’t come out. So the only other opening was my nose. Yep, my nose turned into a body part waterfall. I’ve never experienced this in my entire life, and Hna. McDonald was very happy to see the surprised look of horror that came over my face. And she thought it was pretty hilarious with the water gushing out of my nose. Luckily, the investigador did not see any of this. But it was a little hard to explain the water all over my shirt, and the incontrollable laughter coming from Hna. McDonald. Needless to say, it was not one of my proudest moments.

Another highlight of my week was Christmas in 100 degree weather. YEAH!! We went to the misión house and had our Zone Conference with the misión president and some of the other zones. It was pretty fun! Hna. Mortensen, and Hna. Dickey, and Hna. Stott were all there. And we watched a movie of Christmas and played a lot of outside games. It was pretty fun! We even had a water balloon fight that turned into pouring buckets of water on the hermanas fight. I lost that one. We also had an asado, and Santa Claus (aka Pte. Salas in a papa noel suit) came and handed out presents and packages. I already “misión impossible” stole all of my packages, but it was still fun to see everyone else get their packages. Then we left and headed out to Wal-mart and went caroling to all of the check out lines. It was a pretty Amazing day! We even got permission to have an hermanas sleepover for Christmas. We are pretty much excited! Caroling and acting out the nativity will definitely be involved. I can’t wait!

Today we had a zone activity and ate the leg of a cow. It was pretty delicious. And yesterday we got to see one of our members open up his misión call. His name is Diego, and he is the coolest kid I have ever met in this world. He is a recent convert of two years and he’s going to Chile Santiago North. So I already told him to look out for Shan aka Hna. Ellsworth. He’s pretty excited! He just invited us and opened it with his companion (he’s on the mini misión right now) and his family who aren’t members. I’m excited for the example that he is for his family and the blessings they will receive while he is a missionary.

Well, I’m out of time, but I want to wish you a very holly, jolly Christmas! And just remember to think of Jesus Christ and his life when you picture Christmas this year. My goal is to give Jesus Christ a present this year. I know that if we focus more on the gifts that we give than the gifts that we receive, we will have the best Christmas ever. I’m excited for Christmas and to celebrate this year in the misión. Christ lives, and don’t forget the true meaning of Christmas. I love you all!

Feliz Navidad,

Hna. Ellsworth

Pictures

2010-12-14T15:19:00.001-08:00

Hermana Ellsworth y Hermana McDonald

Missionary Choir

araña

We found chuck!

2010-12-13T12:00:00.000-08:00

So I have my new little hijita – Hna. McDondald. She is pretty much amazing! I went to the mission house Tuesday to go find her. We had a whole bunch of training meetings and it was very beneficial. There were two of us hermanas, and 16 elders that were training. That is a ton of new refuerzos coming to the mission. And a lot of them were latinos. But both of the hermanas were gringas. The other gringa was assigned to her trainer Hna. Lopez, who doesn´t know English. Hna. McDonald later told me that was grateful to get a gringa for her trainer. But ya, she is awesome and we get along great! She is from Idaho and is full of excitement to do the work here. She has had a couple of problems adapting to Argentina culture. But she is a trooper and just keeps on going. I am so grateful to have her as a companion. Her Spanish is way good for a week. She pretty much has a better accent than me. But I´m just way impressed with her testimony and how she can bring the Spirit into the lesson. We are definitely going to be seeing huge miracles this transfer!

We have been doing a lot of contacting this week so that we can find some new investigators that are ready to progress and be baptized. And while we were knocking doors, we pretty much found the coolest thing that I have ever seen in this world. It was a chicken/duck, and yes, we are calling it Chuck. I vaguely remember having this conversation with my sisters one time. I can´t remember when or where, but I just remember talking about that it would make me happy to know if Chuck really does exist. And he does exist, he lives in Parque Ciudad de las Rosas, and his owners are not ready to accept the gospel. Chuck was pretty distraught at that. He started cluck/quacking, would that be clacking?

We had a ward activity this week and it was very interesting. I went around talking to members, menos activos, investigators and introducing them to my companion. And they all laughed at her name and made a joke about hamburgers. It got pretty old, but my companion is cool and doesn´t let it bother her. We ate an asado and they had fuzball tables and a jump castle. It was pretty legit. They told us it was supposed to start at noon, so we came a couple hours late. And we still didn´t eat for another hour and a half. I hate latino mormon standard time. I´m not a huge fan. And we were blessed to be the only gringos in the room that could understand the music – Bon Jovi, Britney Spears, and Spice Girls. We had a chat with the bishop that he should be a little more careful about the music he puts on in the church. Ya… it was fun.

We have seen a couple of difficulties this week with investigators but we are excited to work more with members and find some new investigators that are ready to progress and be baptized. This week we have our zone conference with the mission president. I am way excited! We are going to have it with some of the other zones and I think I have zone conference with a couple of past companions. I´m excited to see them again. Oh and I forgot to tell you. I pulled a Mission Impossible on Tuesday. Apparently, the mission office was keeping the packages for hostage until the Christmas Zone Conferences. Well since I was at the mission house, and knew that my packages were there, I snuck in and saved my packages. I now have a beautiful paper tree in my apartment with presents under the tree. It was pretty cool! Thanks for remembering me Mom!

Well, please keep me in your prayers this week. I often find myself inadequate to be training. It´s a huge responsibility and I definitely feel the weight of the impact that I need to be making for my hijita. But I just myself praying more intently for Holy Ghost so that I can help Hna. McDonald learn all of these things. So if you can do the same, I would appreciate it!

Les kiero,

Hna. Ellsworth

Una Refuerza Ya Viene

2010-12-06T23:03:00.000-08:00

So we got transfers this week. Drum roll please... I´m staying in Rosedal... and i'm training! I definitely didn't see that one coming! I really just was hoping that I would staying with Hna. Neff for Christmas but I guess that I need to follow the example of Nefi and ¨iré y haré.¨ I´m a little nervous to be training again because it´s pretty stressful. And i wish the area and the members and the language a little better. Oh well... mostly I´m just excited for a new adventure. Just remember to keep me in your prayers that i don´t corrupt this new missionary with my gringa accent and obsession to ice cream.

This week was full of exciting moments. We finally sang in our missionary choir. It was actually a ton of fun! There was about six different choirs from different religions and we all sang our songs. It was supposed to be a Christmas concert but we were pretty much the only ones that sang Christmas songs. But there was an evangelist choir group that sang some pretty fun music. There was some clapping and snapping and swaying of the hips. I´m not sure if it was completely appropriate in our church, but we all got a kick out of it.

We also had a little adventure yesterday after church. We went to go pass by one of our investigators that didn't go to church. She wasn't there, so we decided to pass by a member to get some water because there was a bunch of drunk guys outside the house that were yelling some offensive stuff at us. Well, we were just about to take off and the drunk men started fighting right outside. The members told us to get away from the door and the one lady grabbed her baby and ran to the back room. It was pretty intense! But they just threw some pathetic punches and then the cops arrived. We decided to take advantage and we left. Ya, drunk men are dumb. The end.

We´re still working with our investigators and they are just progressing slowly. Satan is working hard with them. We had one investigator that really wanted to go to church yesterday but she had to go help her mom because her dad still beats her mom. I just really hate how Satan has such an influence on people. And he´s always there when something good is about to happen. Just remember to be prepared against the attacks of Satan. I know that the gospel blesses lives and it is always worth it! Yo sé que es difícil, pero no es imposible. ¡Y siempre vale la pena! Pretty much, i know it´s hard but it´s not impossible and it´s always worth it! I´m so grateful for your examples and support. The Church is true!

Les kiero,

Hna. Ellsworth

Nori's email home on November 29th

2010-11-30T08:59:00.000-08:00

¡Feliz Día de Gracias! So Thanksgiving was a huge success. We made turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, Jello salad, and apple pie. Pretty much we had all of the thanksgiving staple foods. But don’t worry; they had a little of Argentina in there. The turkey was deliciously
flavored with Argentina seasonings, the yams were yellow not orange, and the apple pie was more like a giant empanada. Yep, when in Argentina, do as the Argentinians do. Hna. Neff and I had a ton of fun preparing it, and even more fun eating it. It was definitely a Thanksgiving that I will never forget.

We also are very excited to work with the members. We have a new ward misión leader and we are seeing miracles. We now have the phone number of every member with a committed time that they can help us with appointments. We are so excited!! I have never seen the members so excited and aware of the misión work. We are going to keep it going and we’re going to start the month of December with some fun, new stuff. We’re going to keep folletos for the month of Jesús Christ and try to pass by their friends and neighbors to sing a Christmas song. We also are going to make a treat to a member every day so that we can get to know them better and get references. We also want to give a Book of Mormon to every member to mark their favorite scriptures, wrap it as a present, and give it to someone. I love working with members! They are the key to success. Go help the missionaries with a leccion this week, or pray specifically for their investigators, or make them brownies or something. Just do it! You’ll have no idea the impact that it will have!

So we kind of had a hard day Saturday and Sunday morning. It’s pretty much our fault because we prayed for patience and humility. And we definitely received that lesson. We had three lessons with our baptism date investigators and all of them fell through because of different excuses. One was sick, one was busy, one went to the dad’s house, and we even got turned down by a 12 year old girl who wants to be baptized, but she was too busy playing volleyball with her friends. It stung pretty bad! We were afraid to go to more citas because we were afraid to hear more excuses and receive more rejection. And then we had no one in church because of more excuses. It was pretty hard! But Hna. Neff and I went home and prayed. And let me tell you, there is power in prayer! We poured out our whole heart to Heavenly Father, and got up to go to work. We left to go knock doors with a member that is preparing for his misión, and we found 10 new investigators! It was pretty much a miracle for us. I definitely know that God loves us and sends us trials sometimes. But if we learn humility and patience, we will always see the blessings and the miracles that follow.

Well I love the misión and I miss all of you. But don’t forget the commitment that I’m leaving with you all. Go help the missionaries this week! Will you do it? If you will, I know you will have a better week and receive more blessings. I know that missionary work is important and that you can be a missionary without a name tag. I am grateful or all of the important things that I am learning in the misión. I love you all and have a great week!

Les kiero,
Hna.ellsworth

Never a Dull Moment

2010-11-22T08:43:00.000-08:00

So we have had plenty of adventures this week. Let me just tell you that there is never a dull moment in the mission. There’s always something we need to be doing, and the unexpected always occurs. We started the week with P-day, and we got a special invite to the mission choir. I was pretty surprised because I don’t really know how to sing, and apparently you’re supposed to have some music talent to be in this choir. But I think it’s because I’m an hermana. There’s only about 6 hermanas and 25 elders. I’m the only female alto with four elders. Ya, I’m excited! But after the choir practice, we went and played some basketball with some of the elders. We played in our skirts for a little bit; and when we went to leave, all of the gates were locked. So Hna. Neff and I had to jump the fence… in skirts. It wasn’t one of my proudest moments. But I think we did it gracefully for the most part. We also are very blessed to have lunches with members everyday now. But I have learned that you have to work for your food. This week I was a little bit stressed because we ate with an old misión president, the bishop, and the stake president. I was a little nervous, but Hna. Neff and I won them over with a robbery story and misión work plans for the ward. We now have their support and offers for an asado in the future. ;o) We are welcoming in the seasons with a lot of rain and a lot of bichos. We have already found a ton of bugs, the highlights being a scorpion, slugs, and a huge spider. We attacked the scorpion with Raid, the slugs with salt, and the spider had a fiery death. Hna. Neff and I enjoyed ourselves. We have videos to show after the misión. Be excited!

All of that stuff was pretty fun, but the real highlight of the week was Maricel and other baptism dates we put. Rosedal will definitely be baptizing in December. We went and talked with Maricel with our zone leaders, and she had a ton of miracles that happened to her. She now is going back to church and is preparing for her baptism again. She said that she was pretty upset and wanted to drop us but then opened the Book of Mormon and opened to the scripture in 3 Nephi 11 about contention is of the devil. She felt like God was talking directly to her. And then she continued reading about baptism. I love miracles! Heavenly Father really saved us on that one. So she’s preparing to be baptized in a few weeks and went to church yesterday with a couple other investigators that are preparing for their baptism.

We are way excited for all of the miracles that are happening in Rosedal. Hna. Neff and I are just having a party teaching the gospel. Remember that Jesús Christ loves you, and I do too!

Les kiero,
Hna. Ellsworth

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade!

2010-11-15T16:44:00.000-08:00

So this week, I´ve decided that Heavenly Father has to have a sense of humor. Because everytime I ask him a question, he always sends me the answer in a way that I´m not expecting. I´m not quite sure how I feel about that but at least I know that he´s listening to my prayers, just like he listens to your prayers. But this week, I wanted to understand a little more about the scripture that says, ¨There must be an opposition in all things.¨ I should have thought that question out a little bit better before I asked it because I definitely got my personal testimony of opposition this week. So I now know that are trials but there are also the miracles that come with. So here we go, come what may and love it!

Trials:

The Enfermidad

So since it is getting pretty hot, we have been pretty desperate for any water we can get. We ask for some sort of liquid at any house that will give it us. The basically means we have drunk some pretty interesting stuff. The most interesting we have been when my companion asked for water and they just handed us a mug from their table filled with a bright nasty yellow liquid. And of course she gives it to me first to try it. It was pretty funny. But it´s not funny because the water from the tap is pretty bad here. So Hna. Neff got pretty sick from the tap water this last weekend. So we lost a couple work days. I´ve kind of had bad luck with that with past companions. The assistant to the president accused me of poisoning my companions or they all just got sick of me. Hmmm… I wasn´t amused.

Maricel

So our investigator that was supposed to get baptized next week decided that she wasn´t ready to be baptized. I know her testimony and she has the faith and the knowledge to be baptized, but she wants more time. That´s fine because we don´t want to pressure anyone to do something that they don´t want to do, but it was just a hard blow that we weren´t prepared for.

The Robbery
It is only good when I tell it with my companion, purple = narration, green=hna neff, blue=hna ellsworth... so here it is:

So it´s a beautiful spring morning, the birds are singing, the sun is shinning, and the sky is totally clear of clouds. It´s 10am and we are leaving the pension to go to our District Meeting, we walk two houses down and then it happens.....

This moto (motorcycle) comes roaring down the street, with two men, both wearing black helmits. They come right up to the curb in which they were walking, nearly running over Hna Neff.

I am thinking "What a jerk! Who drives like that!??¨"
and I was thinking ¨Hna. Neff... why are you walking in the street! Don´t you know you could get run over?!¨

Then the one on the back jumps off right in from of Hna. Neff. He has his hand beneath his shirt, holding something and he begins to jump back and forth yelling something.....

I take a step back, not sure what he wants, but then I hear him say "SALUDAR!!! SALUDAR!!!!" (saludar= to greet someone)....so I awkwardly wave and say ¨hola?¨
and I took a step away and wondered "Why is he yelling "CELLULAR!!!CELLULAR!" and why is my companion waving at him?"

Suddenly it clicks!!!!!!

.....OOOOOHHHHHH he is yelling "CELLULAR!!! CELLULAR!!!" He is trying to rob us!!!!!! He wants our cell phone! He has a stick looking thing under his shirt! He is trying to make me think he has a gun!

Hna. Neff finally leeps in action..... she yells:

"NO TENEMOS NADA!!!!!" ("We don´t have anything!"...... aren´t you impressed with my spanish?! In this time of crisis I spoke in tongues!!!! I must be improving!!!!)
I was impressed with her spanish too...

Suddenly the Robber looks at Hna Neff´s name tag and freezes, then points and says "HERMANA?!" then he looks and points at Hna Ellsworth´s name tag..."HERMANA???!!!!".....then there is a slight pause followed by "OH PERDÓNAME!!(Forgive Me)" He jumps on the moto again, yells "SON MISIONERAS!"(They are missionaries) at his get away driver and they speed off... he yells back at the confused Hermanas... "DIOS LES BENDIGA"(God bless you)

Do you think he may have been an old investigador???
Or a less active member......???

Then the two Hermanas, serving a mission in the wild suburbias of Argentina, walked to their District Meeting...laughing and laughing all the way.

And they both lived Happily Ever After.....

MIRACLES

Hna. Neff

So my companion is just pretty much amazing. We just have a ton of fun together. Maybe a little too much fun sometimes. Did I mention that her aunt dumped Chuch Norris when they were in college. Pretty much the coolest things I´ve ever heard. Anyways, we´ve pretty much decided that we are going to baptize all of Rosedal with a roundhouse kick.

Ward Mission Work

So we have really been pushing the members to get them excited about the mission work. So we have been giving them pamphlets to give to their friends. And we have been verifying with them to make sure they have been doing it. And they are having some great experiences and we are getting a ton of references. Apparently there are three people that want to be baptized. We just have to help them to get to church and stay in church. But ya, we are seeing a ton of miracles because the members are willing to work too. We are going to start a competition with the Relief Society and the Priesthood to see who can give out more pamphlets and give us more references. We are way excited!

Bishop

So went to church yesterday and brought an investigator and had time to chat with our bishop. We have been working a ton to gain his trust and work more with the members. Anyways, he pulled us into his office, or wait, it actually was the nursery room, but we talked about missionary work. And he promised us a new amazing mission leader, four ward missionaries, and all the support that he can give. And then he ended our little chat saying that he completely trusted us and that he can see and feel that we are good missionaries that are excited and are here to work. So we are definitely going to be seeing more miracles. Because in my experience, I know that if the missionaries have the help of the members that is when there is success.

I love the mission! It´s the best time of my life and I hope it never ends! Hna. Neff and I are seeing a ton of miracles and we are learning and growing through our trials. But really, they don´t really even seem like trials because the blessings outweigh the trials. Well, just remember that Heavenly Father loves you and Hna. Ellsworth does too! El Reino de Dios o Nada!

Les kiero,

Hna. Ellsworth

Feliz Cumple!

2010-11-08T10:38:00.000-08:00

Wow! This week was pretty exciting with birthdays, intercambios with zone leaders, cane dropping with stake president’s wife, and such. And then there were the Amazing things that happened with a perfect reference from another ward, a magically planned baptismo date, and people in the church! It’s probably been one of my better weeks. I have truly seen the miracles of the Lord and the hand of God in the work this week.

But ya, this week was pretty much an awesome birthday present for me. My birthday was way fun. We just played it like every other day. We went to appointments and invited everyone to come unto Christ. I have to admit that I was a little bummed because i didn’t get my package and nobody really knew or cared in Rosedal except for my companion, Hna. Neff who is pretty much Amazing! She made me a cake and we had a fun time together. And I got a phone call from Hna. Dickey, and Hna. Mortensen, and zone leaders, and district leader, and Hna. Peralta (my mini-missionary for three days)! I couldn’t believe that she remembered. And then at 9:00, we got permission from the zone leaders to run a mile to Grido ice cream place and buy a kilo of ice cream. It was pretty much delicious with the cake. But ya, overall it was a great birthday!

We also had fun starting this new program in the Ward. We are giving out the Plan of Salvation pamphlets to everybody to find references. And we gave them to some members during the week and then gave out the rest in Relief Society. And just to show how cool my companion is, she called out the stake president’s wife to see if she had given them out. She had forgotten but another member had a really great experience with it. Anyways, i think we have stricken the fear of God into the relief society, so i hope that we get some great results. And during our presentation, a former misson president was in the room listening. And he came up afterwards and told us that it´s a great idea and he wants us to come and tell the Elder’s Quorum next week. We are way excited. We also kind of dropped cane with the misión leader and the bishop after church, but all of it done with a smile. So we’re excited to see some miracles soon.

Speaking of miracles, Maricel came to church and loved it! She made a lot of new friends and she is definitely growing in her testimony and faith. She is planned to be baptized at the end of this month, so we are really looking forward to that. And other Miracle happened yesterday with Ana Luz. Her brother is an Amazing recent convert of 2 years and is preparing for the misión. And her sister isn’t baptized but goes every week. But now her mom wants her to be baptized this month. It’s crazy how miracles just fall right in front of us. We’re excited to see what else happens this week! But ya, the work is Amazing and I’m loving life! The church is true and we need to put our shoulder to the wheel and get to work. We need to do things that we have never done before, and that is when we see the miracles! We are really excited to get a ton of Books of Mormon this week and we’re going to have the members write their testimonies and give them out to a neighborhood. And then we’ll pass by after a week and try to teach them all. It’s an idea given to us by Presidente Salas, so we’re excited to go try it out and see what happens! We are committed as a missionary to grow in our faith and obedience to see more baptisms. It will take a lot of work but I’m excited for the changes that we are making. Well, I love you all! Siga adelante!

Les quiero,

Hna. Ellsworth

La Palada Inicial

2010-11-01T10:31:00.000-07:00

This week was so amazingly awesome! I am so incredibly blessed to have been here for the ground breaking for the temple of Cordoba. And what more, we were able to have a misión conference with Elder Andersen. So I´m just going to give the highlights of the weekend.

So it started Friday night when some of the hermanas came to sleep over at our pension because they live far away. We had six hermanas in our small pension. The Assistants called it the Hermana Pajama Party (which interestingly enough, is translated the same in spanish.) But ya, we made a small little bonfire in the back pateo and ate smores, bon bons, and chocolate cake. It was pretty fun. And I got to catch up with Hna. Dickey, my companion from the MTC. I love that girl!

But the real highlight of the weekend was the Mission Conference. We all went to the church that is across from Wal-mart and there was about 200 missionaries there. It was crazy!! I saw all of the hermanas in the misión including Hna. Mortensen. And i saw all of the elders from my MTC district and from my other districts. But the best part was to hear the words of a prophet, Elder Andersen. He spoke in spanish and you could see that he struggled with it because he knows spanish, portuguese, and french but the spirit was so incredibly strong. He taught us that we need to focus on the little things to make the great things happen. He is confident in us that we can flouish as a misión and find more people to baptize in Cordoba, Argentina.

My favorite part was when he asked Presidente Salas to translate for him. He switched to english and started testifiying about the Book of Mormon in english. The Spirit was so strong. I know that he is an apostle of God and I was incredibly blessed to shake his hand and hear the words and counsel of him. And then afterwards, he left to go do the ground breaking for the temple. We watched it on the big screen. I honestly can´t believe that I am so blessed to have been here in this time and this place to see them build the temple. The Church is growing in Cordoba, Argentina and we are seeing miracles. We have to keep moving forward in faith and invite all of our brothers and sisters to come unto Christ.

We, Hna. Neff and I, are very excited for this month because it will be the month of families. We really want to focus on the families and teach about the plan of salvation, proclamation to the family, strength of youth, and family history to everyone in Rosedal! We are going to give a lot of resources to the members so that they can share it with their friends and families as well. And we want to finish the month with a huge activity and baptism. We are very excited to see the miracles. We talked to the bishop yesterday and he promised us that if we worked with all of our diligence, then we would see the miracles. And i know that is completely true. Just like one of my best friends always tells me- ( Faith + Work + Obedience = Miracles. )

I know that God lives and Jesus Christ lives. I know this Church is true and that Joseph Smit h was a true prophet that restored the true Church. I know the Book of Mormon is true and we call always find the answers that we need in this life to find peace and happiness. I know that Pres. Monson is a true prophet and that the 12 apostoles are men called of God. I am grateful for the opportunity to hear Elder Andersen and learn from him. I know there is power in prayer and I am so incredibly grateful for your prayers. I can feel your prayers and love here in Argentina. I love you all and I hope you have a great week. Be sure to eat a cake on Thursday for me!

Les kiero

Hna. Ellsworth

Bienvenidos a Rosedal

2010-10-28T11:49:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love Barrio Rosedal and my new companion Hna. Neff. These last couple of days has been pretty amazing, and I’m not quite sure where to start. So I’m going to take the advice from the Sound of Music and start from the very beginning because it’s the only good place to start.

Miercoles – So I got here in Rosedal and met my new companion Hna. Neff and hung out with her old companion Hna. Stott for a while. I have kind of met Hna. Neff before - a couple of times, and Hna. Mortensen had told me a lot about her because they were companions in the MTC together. I caught up with Hna. Stott for a while. She was in my district and we got in the misión at the same time. She’s way fun, and we understand each other. So it was fun to chat with her for a while. And then we headed out and went to a Dinosaur Museum with some of the zone. It was pretty weird but kind of fun. It was something fun to do for pday. And then we had a family home evening with the bishop’s family that night. I was pretty nervous, but we just went in and taught; and it went well. I hope that we have success working with the bishop and leadership in the ward. Missionary work is pretty much impossible without the help and the support of the members.

Jueves – we stopped by a lot of our investigators and some of the members. A lot of the investigators weren’t there, but we did find Maricel. She’s a 22 year-old that is interested in the church. She is reading the Book of Mormon everyday, and she has really good questions. But she still hasn’t gone to church. We really tried to focus on that, but she still didn’t make it to church. Sometimes I don’t understand why it’s so hard to get to church. There are so many blessings waiting at church, why don’t people want blessings from God? It was raining that morning, but I don’t think rain is any sort of excuse to not go to church.

Viernes – We passed by a couple of references from members that happened to be some familias that were part menos activos and part nonmembers. But it went well. We tried to help them recognize their testimonies so that they return back to church. I hope it helps, but I think the Spirit will have the most effect and then the members. A lot of menos activos just need a friend in church. And unfortunately, us missionaries don’t really have the time to just be friends. So we’re trying to help the ward understand that important principle. I hope it gets across. We also went to a family home evening with another member’s family. And we also ask for references, and I think the Lord has been testing me. I made a goal that I would not dwell on La Calera. that I would focus on my new area and not be homesick of La Calera. But check it, every time I asked a member for a referente, they gave me one for somebody that lives in La Calera. And every few hours, I would receive a call from the hermanas in La Calera. I miss it, but thankfully I love Rosedal!

Sabado - So we got the help of a member named Diego. It’s this 19 year old boy that is preparing for his misión. He got baptized a year ago, and he’s pretty much amazing! He helped us for all of the afternoon, and I already know that he is going to be an amazing missionary! He knows pretty much everything about missionary work, and he had this excitement that I need to have every minute of the day. It’s a new goal that I’m working on. It just goes to show that you can be an example to anyone.

Domingo - It was raining in the morning, but we went to church. It was a weird experience for me because I’m not used to going to a real church house. It’s been a really long time that I have gone to a ward. They asked me to bear my testimony in sacrament meeting, and I got pretty nervous; but I think I did fine. But I’m excited to be in Rosedal and work with Hna. Neff.

Well I got to go but keep helping the missionaries and just know that I love you all!

Hna. Ellsworth

Cambios

2010-10-20T09:59:00.001-07:00

So we got transfers this week and I have been transferred to Rosedal with Hna. Neff. I'm very excited and a little scared. Rosedal is in the capital of Cordoba and it has a ward and chapel and everything. I'm going big time now. I've only ever worked in branches where the church is in a house. So I'm excited for a new environment and to learn new things. Hna. Neff was the companion of Hna. Mortensen in the MTC so I have already heard a lot of great things about here.

I'm very excited but I{m not going to lie to you. These last couple of days has been pretty emocional for me. This morning I was listening to the CD that Allison made for me and the song Familias Forever came on. I used to play this song for my other companions that were leaving the misión because it's a perfect trunky song. But when i was listening to it today, and it pretty much brought me to tears. And here's why, the words are – And it{s hard to say goodbye and let go. And it's hard to see it end. When the memories we have made will never happen again. - Story of my life. I have had so much time here in La Calera that I feel like they are part of my family. I didn't want to say goodbye. I passed by almost everyone and took pictures and said goodbye. Some of the members/investigators made me an asado and a couple others promised that they would make me one when I come back. But i'm definitely going to miss La Calera and all of the people I have met. And I'm going to really miss Hna. Mortensen. The Aspen Companionship is breaking up but we are definitely going to keep in touch. She has no choice!

But this week was full of interesting experiences. The Assistants to the President came to pick up a mini-missionary that is in our Branch. And while they were there, they wanted to pass by and talk with our investigador. But Hna. Mortensen had got pretty sick that day so we were kinda of stuck in the pension. But they said it was okay for me to do intercambios with them. It was really weird! I{m just not used to being without a companion. But we went to the cita with me, the 2 assistants, the mini-missionary, his companion, and my investigador – Gustavo. So pretty much it was me and 5 chicos that have 20 years. It was weird but I learned a lot of great stuff. The Assistants are amazing missionaries! It was a great experience to learn from them. This last week we went to an English class because one of the members invited us to pass by for a couple of minutes. It was a ton of fun. We just talked a little bit of English like Hello and How are you? And then we gave all of the kids a penny of the U.S. They absolutely loved it! And we got a couple of references. I love it!

And i have a couple of other stories but I'm out of time. But I'm excited for everything that is going to happen this week. It's going to be very interesting so keep me in your prayers. Love you all!

Hna. Ellsworth

Hogar Dulce Hogar

2010-10-12T13:29:00.000-07:00

So I officially feel like La Calera has become my home away from home. I can honestly leave my apartment in the morning and walk by about 5 people that I have talked to before. I know the post man, the vegetable boys, the meat man, the Chinese people at the grocery store, the policemen, the bread lady, and everybody else that I have invited to come unto Christ. I often have that one song from ¨Beauty and the Beast¨ called ¨Bonjour¨ stuck in my head. ¨Every morning just the same, since the morning that we came…¨ And then I have to repent and think of a hymn to sing in my head. But it’s pretty crazy in that everybody knows us. We´re pretty much just those ¨two blond gringas that talk weird and are always talking to people about a blue book.¨ I pretty much love the misión!

So we have been working pretty diligently with this kid named Gustavo. He’s pretty Evangelist but has a sincere desire to follow Christ. So we’ve been trying to teach him, and he likes the Book of Mormon but is not so sure about Joseph Smith. It’s kind of interesting because it’s impossible to have a testimony of one without the other. But he says that he’s praying for an answer about Joseph Smith, but that he is waiting for an answer. And it’s interesting because we have been teaching him with different members and each one, when they heard that, read the scripture in Moroni 10:4-5. So now he has heard that scripture about 5 different times. But you have to love that scripture. It’s something that I have been studying and focusing on more. With just three things – faith in Jesus Christ, real intention, and a sincere heart – we can know the truth of all things. What a powerful promise! But we went to his church last week because he went to General Conference. It was very interesting, and it reminded me of an email that my sister sent me. She summed it up perfectly. And I really don´t think I could explain it better than her. So here you go… Sis. Ellsworth in Orlando said, ¨Satan will never put us in a situation that makes us grow. It is only through God that we will learn and grow and progress within ourselves. I realized that yesterday when we attended another church. We met a man that said he'd come to our church if we came to his. So we went to Fellowship Orlando, a non-denominational church. It was quite interesting. I felt like I was at an EFY dance. Weird, huh? But although they sung songs of praise and the saving grace of God, not teaching anything that is false doctrine, I realized that nothing that was said helped us to improve ourselves. It was just words of praise and words describing the wonders of God. I'm glad to be in the true church and learn of the full gospel of Jesus Christ that helps us know how to improve, how to grow, how to see our potential and the way to obtain that potential.¨ I would like to add my testimony to hers that I know that this church is true and that our Heavenly Father gives us the great blessing to learn and grow. I am so grateful to improve myself in the misión. It´s not the easiest thing in the world, but it’s definitely worth it. El Reino de Dios o Nada!

Les amo,
Hna. Ellsworth

I thank you!

2010-10-04T11:55:00.000-07:00

I LOVE GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!! I´m pretty much convinced that General Conference is better than opening presents on Christmas morning!! Let´s just list some of the great tender mercies that I was blessed to receive this last weekend.

Reunion with Villa Independencia. I get to see all of the members from my old area and I got to see 6 of my investigators that I found and taught that had been baptized since I´ve been in La Calera. I had never been so happy! I got to hug them and talk with them and I was pretty much close to tears. They all told me that they are excited when I return. (If it happened with La Calera, maybe it can happen with Villa Independencia.)
Roadtrip with La Calera. So we all got to load up in an old school city bus and we all went together to the Conference. It was so much fun. I felt like I was in Primary School again. I got to sit in the back of the bus and kept getting out of my seat to talk to all of the members. I absolutely love the members in La Calera. I feel like they´re part of my extended family (just a lot more tanned!).
We had three of our investigators that came to the conference and loved it. One of them had to leave early and that was pretty stressful for me because I didn´t know that he had left because I was in the english session. But he said that he liked it and we hope that he makes it to his baptism date.
I got to watch three sessions of conference in English and one in Spanish. I was planning on watching them all in english, but the members wanted us to stay and watch one with them. And i´m going to be completely honest and tell you that I didn´t understand everything in spanish but i understood most of it. It was kind of interesting to watch it in spanish but it´s definitely better to watch it in english because you can hear the emotion in the speakers´voices and the dramatic pauses in the most important parts. So COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS!! You probable never thought about watching conference in your native language as a blessing, but it is a huge blessing. You jsut don´t realize it until you don´t have it.
We got to talk to the other hermanas that are in Villa Independencia. And this might sound like nothing but it´s exactly a huge thing for me. We are the only hermanas in our district and in our zone. So I never get to see the other hermanas. So when we see the other hermanas misioneras, we just love to catch up on everything that is happening.
I received my package from Mom and I got to wear my new shirts to the conference and eat a peanut butter and banana sándwich for lunch. It was delicious and it felt great to wear new clothes without stains or holes in it. So ya, thanks mom!
And for the tender mercy mas grande was the talks in General Conference. They were absolutely amazing. And I love how the Brethren say things that are just meant for me and exactly what I need. I always love to bring questions to Conference and search for the answers. And without fail, they always answer all my questions and they do it specifically. I think my favorite talk was given by Pres. Eyring about how we can trust in God. It is something that I´m working on and struggling with it. Because I know if i put all my trust in Him, and less in myself, we will see more miracles and baptisms. But Pres. Eyring helped me receive revelation through the Holy Ghost that I need for the missionary work in La Calera. Now I just need to apply it and see the miracles.

There are a ton of more blessings that I saw in the conference but i think you get the big Picture. I absolutely love learning from the counsel and wisdom of the Prophet and the 12 Apostles. I know that they are men called of God. And if we just listen to their Word and apply their words, we will be blessed. So I would like to do my part and apply the words of our beloved Prophet, Pte. Monson. I just like to give my gratitude to everyone that is supporting me in the misión. Thank you for the letters, for the packages, for your counsel, for your love, for your examples, and most importantly, thank you for your prayers. I can honestly feel the stregnth of your prayers. I love you and pray for you daily. I thank my family – my parents, my siblings and their familias, my grandparents, my aunts and uncles, my cousins, my church leaders, my teachers, my friends, and everyone that inspires me to be a better person. I thank you and I love you! I know this Church is true and it brings us the peace and joy that we need in our lives.

Press Forward,

Hna. Ellsworth

Drugged and Dieted

2010-09-27T16:22:00.001-07:00

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!

2010-09-20T16:14:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-13T13:32:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-09-06T20:13:00.000-07:00

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

The Miracle of the Mission

2010-08-30T13:24:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-23T13:43:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-16T13:26:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-08-16T13:24:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-08-09T13:35:00.001-07:00

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!!

2010-08-02T08:01:00.001-07:00

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

Pictures

2010-07-30T20:20:00.002-07:00

Lost Sheep

2010-07-26T17:09:00.000-07:00

So we had a fun P-day today. We went to the misión home and had an asado for Hna. Widmer because it´s her last week. We also played soccer with the zone. And check this out, my team consisted of me, my zone leader, the assistent to the misión President, and the Mission President. I was a little nervous because I am HORRIBLE at playing soccer. But it was a ton of fun. And the asado was delicious! I love Argentinian BBQ´s!

Bueno, we continue to see a ton of miracles in La Calera! There was one morning this week that was really hard. We had about three different appointments and three different back-up plans and nobody was home or nobody had time to listen to us. It was a little disappointing for us but we figured that we needed to have animo and keep going! So we just started to knock doors and we found the most incredible people. We found a family of 10 people!!! It was like chaos when we entered. But then we sang ¨Families Can Be Together Forever¨and the Spirit came and there was an incredible peace. It was Amazing!!! And then we found another lady and sang a hymn and taught about the love of Jesus Christ and His Atonement and she started crying the entire time we were there. Our morning started with all of our appointments standing us up but ended with a ton of Miracles!!! I guess we had to miss those other appointments to find these people. Our Heavenly Father is always preparing us and those we are teaching. We just have to live worthy and follow the Spirit and we´ll find the miracles.

We have also been working a lot with the members to have more of a Church attendance. If we have 80 in the church every week, La Calera will have a chapel. So we´re passing by everyone to invite them to church. One in particular is one of my baptisms. He moved when I went to my other area and now he lives really far away and so he stopped going. But we are passing by every week and now he is attending church again! Yeah!! The misión has taught me a ton about the lost sheep. We have to go search out the people that have fallen away and bring them to church. It is so Important!!! Leave the 99 and search for that one sheep. That is what Christ did and we all need to follow His example. So go and search!! Visit somebody, call somebody, and just be a friend. That is usually all they need, and then they´ll return to church.

So it´s the last week of the misión for Hna. Widmer so we are going to be working a ful. We are going to finish her misión running! And I am so excited for Hna. Mortensen to come in a week. I have been telling everyone that one of my best friends is coming to the misión and everyone is telling me that I´m going to train her. I HOPE SO!!! So keep it in your prayers! It was be Amazing!!! But ya, until next week, take care and don´t forget that they are always MIRACLES!!!

Gold Flakes in a jar of dirt

2010-07-19T14:47:00.000-07:00

Mom gave an object lesson once that has always stuck with me. She gave me a jar full of dirt and then told me that if I search hard enough, that i would find flakes of gold. She then likened the object lesson with the principle of obedience. Sometimes our Heavenly Father gives us trials or a jar of dirt. But he also promises us blessings or flakes of gold. We just have to search for it with patience, and we will soon find the rich blessings. It´s probably been about 10 years, so i´m not sure i remember completely correctly, but it definitely stuck with me and helped me this last week. This week felt like Heavenly Father gave me a big ol´ pile of dirt. But thankfully, I remembered that there are always blessings and miracles, I just have to search for them. So here are a couple of miracles that I found this week!

So we had our activity Friday. It was the coldest day of the year, so we didn´t have a very good turn out. We actually had more investigators than members. But we had a great time with the few people that came. We had planned to present a Ward Mission Plan but because there were more investigators, we changed the lesson in the last minute. But I think it went well and the Spirit was very strong We taught about Matthew 4:18-20, and how we can be ¨Fishers of Men.¨ So we had a bunch of different fishing stuff to follow the theme. It was a little bit cheesy, but a ton of fun. We had a fishing game for the little kids and we even made a cake in the shape of a fish! It was kind of weird but very delicious! It was a ton of fun! And the investigadores that went to the activity, also came to Church!

Saturday we went to a new neighborhood to find a few contacts that we´ve received We didn´t have Money, so we had to walk the whole way. We had to walk a ton in the freezing cold. It´s about 10 degrees here and I´m learning the importance of layering. For example, right now I am wearing three shorts, two jackets, a coat, two different pairs of socks, two pants hidden under my skirt, a cap, scarf, and gloves. Yep, that´s right! The frio can´t touch this! But I digress… So we walked and walked and walked (ANd yes, I was singing the Primary song) and we found a ton of amazing people. We had the most lessons in one day than in my entire misión. It was Amazing! You just have to search, and you´ll find the blessings!!

And Tuesday we had our interviews with Pres. and Hna. Salas. I absolutely love them!! They are so incredibly strong in the Spirit and are excited to do new things. He told me some things to help with the members in La Calera and reminded me the importance to always have excitement for the work! This is once in a Lifetime opportunity and we can´t waste a second of it! I´m excited to apply all of the things that I am learning from him and see the miracles unfold.

But ya, I am doing great here in La Calera. I am very grateful for the blessings and miracles that are here. Remember, there are always Miracles, blessings, tender mercies that are happening in our lives. It´s how our Heavenly Father shows us that he loves us. So if you don´t see them, that means you have to go search for the gold flakes in the jar of dirt. Because I promise you, the blessings are there waiting for you. You just have to find them. Well, I love you and miss you! Recuerde, siempre hay milagros!

Les kiero,

Hna. Ellsworth

Conference, Hospitals, and English

2010-07-12T10:35:00.001-07:00

So I had another fantastic week! I had the great blessing to meet our new mission president and he is pretty much Amazing! I am so excited! Things are going to change but it´s going to be great! I left the conference very excited and energetic to work. Our mission president is Pres. Salas and Hna. Salas who are from Buenos Aires, Argentina and he has about four kids, (one that is going to live with them in the misión.) Pres. Salas is very funny and very energetic and very spiritual. I like that he knows when to make Jokes and have fun, and then can bring the Spirit and get down to business. In the Zone Conference, he started with a video of his family. They sang a song in English and Spanish because they are all bilingual. And then afterwards, we saw a video of all of the the returned missionaries in his family bear their testimonies. It was very powerful! And then we heard from Pres. and Hna. Salas. They taught us how to be better teachers and how to get excited for the work here in Cordoba, Argentina. And then they presented the changes. There´s not a lot of changes, mostly just the scheduling. We´re only going to do Zone Conferences and Interviews once every three months. And there´s going to be a lot more Leadership Training Meetings. It doesn´t really affect me a lot. We also focused a lot on what our purpose really is as missionaries. I feel very blessed to have two different misión president and learn from their different perspectivas. Pres. Olsen´s motto is ´If other missions are doing it, we can do it too!¨ And Pres. Salas focused on the importance of excitement in the work. I have an interview with Pres. Salas tomorrow, so I´m very excited!

This week was very interesting. I had my first experience in an Argentinian hospital. Now, don´t freak out Mom! Everything is fine. My companion has had a lot of pain in her stomach and so we went and found out that she has a hernia in her belly button and she needs to have a surgery. But she goes home in three weeks, so she´s going to wait until she gets home. And I learned that Argentinian hospitals take your temperature from your armpit (not in your mouth) and that all injections are administered through the bum. I hope and pray that I never have to go to the hospital in the misión ever again! But now she has another diet because she always has Gastroitis (i´m not really sure what that is in English.) And so with the two different diets, pretty much all she can eat is pasta and vegetables and sometimes fruit. So I´m getting really healthy here in the misión. And I´m sad to report that I lost all the kilos that I gained in Villa Independencia. But I feel better and I have more energy. Wierd! Who would´ve thought that I would have more energy ealing fruits and vegetables instead of cakes and ice cream? Yep, so i´m just strengthening my testimony of the Word of Wisdom.

And do you want to hear the coolest thing ever?!! We found a family that only speaks English!!! They are from the United States but they´ve lived here for two years but the husband still doesn´t know any Spanish. So we get to teach them everything in English. YEAH!! I have missed English so much!! My companion and I are both gringas but we always speak Spanish because I need the practice. I went about three months without any English. It felt good to have a conversation in English again. And the other good news is that he is a chef! And he wants to make us American Pizza!!!! I have to write American Pizza because Argentinian Pizza is very, very, very diferent. It´s not bad, but it´s not American. So I´m pretty much excited! And they are reading the Book of Mormon and he always has a testimony of the Book of Mormon. Woohoo! They´re really busy with opening a Pizza Resturaunt right now so they haven´t gone to church yet but we are definitely working on that. He´s not too interested to go because he won´t understand anything. We´re happy to translate but he needs a little bit more convincing. But ya, keep the Family Villy in your prayers that they will go to church.

Well, I´m very excited for this week with the activity Friday and the interview with Pres. Salas tomorrow. I hope you are enjoying summer and vacations! Love ya and remember who you are and that you are children of God!

Les kiero,

Hna. Ellsworth

Feliz Dia de Independencia!

2010-07-05T10:11:00.000-07:00

We celebrated 4th of July yesterday by eating a delicious American meal of bbq steak, Mashed potatoes, Corn-on-the-cob, and green salad. And we finished it up with chocolate cake and ice cream. It was pretty much amazing! And it was even more delicious because I hadn´t eaten any sugar or fat for about a week. I´m trying to follow this diet with Hna. Widmer. Which pretty much means we can´t eat anything except pasta, rice, vegetables, and specific fruit. And i´m a big fan of these food but it´s hard to eat them without sauces or butter or something unhealthy on top of it. Oh well, I´m trying to eat healthy. It´s kind of a struggle but I´m learning.

Other highlights of this week is that we recieved our new misión president. I haven´t met him yet but the Elders in the misión office told us that there will be a ton of changes. It should be exciting… And i can´t remember if i already said this, but he is from Buenos Aires, Argentina but he knows perfect English. I´m sure that will come in handy. But ya, I should meet him this week because we have Zone Conference with him. I´ve very excited to see the changes that will happen.

We´re trying to keep busy this week with working with our investigadores and the members. We have an activity coming up for 16 de Julio. My companion and I are in charge, so we´re excited to do something new and different. So if you have any fun ideas or activities about ¨Working Together,¨ send them my way. We´re going to stay busy with making decorations, invitations, planning, activities, cooking, and all of that other fun stuff. It should be a ton of fun and I´m way excited!

We´re working with a young man named Augusto. He is preparing to get baptized this month. He´s amazing because he is going to church, praying, and reading the scriptures. And the greatest thing is that you can see a change in him every week. All of his family and friends have seen this huge change in him. So we´re very excited for him and we´re just happy to be working in La Calera together again! I hope all is well with everyone!

Les kiero,

Hna. Ellsworth

I'M BACK!!!

2010-06-28T08:49:00.000-07:00

I´M BACK!!!

WOW! I feel like I say this every week but I LOVE THE MISSION!!! I just had an incredible week! I saw so many miracles!! I have to admit that I had my doubts to return to La Calera. I´m always looking forward to new opportunities and new experiences. I´m kind of a huge fan of change! So I was a little hesitant to go back to La Calera. My first day was pretty rough to see what had changed while I was gone. My favorite familias and both of my baptismos had moved out of the area. And my very first day, we went to a ward party and I definitely know who missed me and who didn´t. It was a bittersweet moment. But you know what i learned this week: I can choose to look at the problems and bad things, or I could look for solutions and for all the great things. Needless to say, I chose the latter. I came prepared with a ton of goals and plans and I put them in practice. And I was blessed to see the miracles that happen immediately. And there was a ton of miracles so I think I´m just going to list them off!

Most popular phrase of the week - ¨Wow! You are a new person!¨
I recieved two packages from Mom, so we had Christmas on June 25. (Because it´s really cold and it´s the 6 month mark of christmas. Yep, i know i´m clever) so we put up a tree and presents and decorations and hot chocolate and cinnoman rolls and christmas music and a nativity and read the Christmas story in Luke. It was pretty much Amazing! I´ll try to send photos soon!
After a month of only three lunches with members, we have four lunches this week!
We passed by some members that haven´t gone to church for a few months and some of them came!!! And a good story with that. So we passed by la familia Loyola who haven´t gone to church in a long time. We invited them and testified of the importante of church and promised them that they would recieve blessings if they went. They were a little hesitant and told us that they might be preparing for the soccer game of Argentina. (The World Cup is reall HUGE here! Bigger than the superbowl, World series, and NBA all put together!) So i promised them that if they went to church, Argentina would win. I honestly was trying to follow the Spirit on this one. But ya, so they went and guess what?! Argentina WON!!! Just another example that Heavenly Father fulfills his promises!
We had eight investigators in the Church!!! Some members brought friends, one of my old investigadores, and one of our investigadores that we challenged to be baptized this last week!
We tripled the numbers of: lessons taught, members that helped us, people we talked to, members in the church, investigadores in the church, people that have a baptismo date, and new investigadores. We tripled the numbers from the week before. I am way tired but very happy!

I really feel so blessed and excited to be in La Calera with Hna. Widmer again. We are going to do miracles. I feel so blessed to be an instrument in the Lord´s hands. I can feel him giving me the confidence and the means to share His powerful message. I love you all and remember that Miracles Happen!

Les amo,

Hna. Ellsworth

Shocker!

2010-06-21T11:13:00.001-07:00

So here´s a little shocker… I´m back in La Calera with Hna. Widmer. Same area, same companion, same branch, everything. I feel like i´m living in one giant flashback! This is possibly one of the wierdest transfers ever. I realize that i don´t have very many but this has never been done before. To return to the same area is wierd. Or to have the same companion is unheard of. And to do both of them after so short of time is just crazy! I don´t really understand it but I am definitely excited to come back. I left La Calera feeling like a newbie that didn´t know the language very well. But now I can return and ¨tear it up!¨ I´m so excited to apply all of the things that I´ve learned in Villa Independencia. And it´s great to be with Hna. Widmer again. This is her last transfer and she wants to end it strong. And it´s great because i already know the area and the members, so we can just take off running. It´s going to be great!

But I´m definitely going to miss Villa Indpendencia. Yesterday, I got to eat an asado. I can´t remember if i´ve ever mentioned an asado but they´re pretty much the most delicious barbeque that i´ve ever heard. They jsut barbequed a bunch of steaks and sausages. It was so delicious!! But i didn´t know and wasn´t prepared for the chorizo de sangre. You´re going to have to look up the translation for that one but just be prepared that it is disgusting. I´m never eating it again. But i absolutely loved the asado. It was a perfect way tos ay goodbye to Villa Independencia. I am sad that I had to leave. I´m going to miss the members and all of the people I met. But i guess this is the misión. You have to be ready for everything that happens. Come what may and love it! I love the Lord and the opportunity to help do His work. I´m so grateful for this opportunity to learn and to grow. Becuase I have learned a ton in the misión! I´ve learned about the gospel, our Savior, and a lot ut myself. And I know that we can always learn more. There is always a reason and a purpose. So i know there is a purpose of why I am here in La Calera with Hna. Widmer… again! I´m just excited to find out why. Wish me luck! And know that you´re all in my prayers!

Les amo,

Hna. Ellsworth

Big Ol' List of Questions

2010-06-14T08:09:00.000-07:00

My bad! Sorry that my emails are short, mom. I guess i can never think of things to write about. But I aim to please. So I guess I´ll try to write a bit more by answering some of your questions. !Disfruten!

Do you have mamasitas who cook for you (like Emily did) or do you eat at members' homes everyday (or do you cook for yourself)?

I eat at member´s homes everyday. It´s pretty much a huge blessing! We actually have more offers of lunch then we have days. And we eat a ton!! I eat about 2-3 plates overflowing of pasta, pizza, rice, potatoes, meat, and different Argentina food. And that is why I have gained about 5 kilos aka 12 lbs in Villa Independencia. Crazy! My goal is still 10 kilos, and I think I might just surpass my goal.

Do you do your own laundry by hand? (I think I remember that you have a washing machine but not sure.) Do you line dry it?

Another huge blessing is that we have a washing machine. And in La Calera, we had a member wash our clothes. Can you say – spoiled rotten? And yes, we do line dry our clothes. I kind of miss the drying machine because it´s like an automatic ironing job. Oh well, i´m just happy that i don´t have to wash my laundry by hand.

What are the perks and disadvantages of your apartment?

Perks – it has the room we sleep in, the bathroom, a closet, and the kitchen/studying area. Again, i´m pretty spoiled!

Disadvantages – we kind of shower from a bucket that heats up water. It´s kind of wierd and i never have enough time to wash all my hair. (I should cut my hair but i´m too scared. My hair is still in the shape of a ¨V¨.) Also we have to keep the gas inside. Which is fine, but we have to remember to always shut it off because yesterday the carbon monoxide alarm went off and we had to evacuate. That was kind of interesting. But at least we know it works.

Who can we be praying for to help you bring about the changes you are hoping for?

Sergio and that he quits smoking. Maria and that she gets married. And Claudia and Jose and their family that they will continue being Amazing.

Do you have someone who plays the piano/organ/keyboard at church? Have you played? Do you have special musical numbers? Do you and your companion sing together during companion study? (The sisters do here sometimes, and it is angelic coming from downstairs when I least expect it during the day.)

We don´t have a piano/organ/keyboard in the church. So i have been blessed to never have placed. I guess there was this one time for a baptismo but I´m just trying to block that out of my memory. I guess I´m just not a fan of sight reading songs. Oh well. And there aren´t really special musical numbers here but my companion and I are going to sing one next Sunday. It´ll be the first special musical number I have ever seen in Argentina. The problema is that we´re not much of singers, and it might be a little interesting without piano… but we are practicing every morning, because we always sing for companion study. It should be interesting…

What about a character sketch of a few of your favorite ward members and why they are your favorite?

One of my favorite ward members would have to be the Familia Godoy. They actually lived in Mesa (near Broadway and Val Vista) for a long time and they have some kids that are still living there. Is that crazy or what? They went on a temple mision and the hermano has a blood clot in his leg. So keep him in our prayers. But ya, they are pretty much Amazing! The hermana is the Relief soceity president and she loves the misión work so she helps us a ton! And random note, they bought this Magic Jack thing which they can call anyone in the States for a lot cheaper. And they want to call our parents. So you might get a call from a lady with a really strong accent soon. Be excited!

What about critter stories? I haven’t heard you mention anything like that (since the ants).

I haven´t seen any critter for a while besides dogs. It´s pretty cold, so i think all the bugs are hiding out. I saw a rat once and that kind of freaked me out. Other than that, i don´t really have any good critter stories.

What is there to tell about cultural differences?

So this week the World Cup started. Now if you had told me this befote the misión, i would have been like, ¨What is the World cup?¨ I actually did that here and they all looked at me like I was crazy! The World cup is the biggest thing here. They do it every four years so I am kind of excited to be here when it happens because it is pretty crazy! I didn´t really think anything was going to happen until Saturday morning and we recieved a call that said we weren´t allowed to leave our apartment until 1. We had to wait until after the game had ended. I couldn´t believe it! Latinos are for real with their soccer. The United States played the same day as Argentina, (thankfully not against each other) and so my companion and I dressed up in all red, white, and blue. It´s little things like that that make me happy!

What kinds of instruction do you get a zone conferences/district meetings/ etc.?

So we just had a Zone Conference this week and it was pretty much Amazing! It was a little sad because it´s the last zone conference that we´ll have with Pres. and Hna. Olsen. They are finishing their three years of the misión and going home the beginning of July. So it was a little bittersweet, but I´m kind of excited to meet the new misión president. It´ll be cool that I can have two different misión presidents and get to know them both for plenty of time. But I am definitely going to miss Pte. and Hna. Olsen. I have learned so much from them. But ya, the highlight of the zone conference is that they all talked about out activity 25 de Mayo. The President loved it! So now they are teaching everyone in the misión to do the same thing 9 de Julio (Argentina independence day.) It was pretty cool! We felt good that we are following the Spirit and doing good things. And I´ll just end with a cool little thought that I´ve heard a few times in the misión…

Remember this:

Faith is the Power

Obedience is the Price

Love is the Motive

The Spirit is the Key

Christ is the Reason

The Restoration is the Message

The Members are the Means

Baptism is the Way

Joy is the Reward

Salvation is the Cause

How true is that? I love that thought because we need all of those things to invite others unto Christ. We need the faith, the obediente, the love, the Spirit, ALL of those things. I´m grateful to be in the misión. And i love you all! El Reino o Dios o NADA!

Les kiero,

Hna. Ellsworth

YEAH!!

2010-06-07T12:07:00.001-07:00

So we had a great week in that we actually found our investigators. YEAH!! I don´t know what the deal is but it´s way hard to find people again. They either lose interest, have to work or move! It´s a bit disheartening. But it´s all good because we found everyone this week and we had a lot of people in Church again. YEAH!!!

So this week we found and taught Gema and she needed some help in her backyard. So we got to pull weeds, and chop down bushes and trees. It was pretty hard core, let me tell you! I defnitely used an ax to chop down a tree. YEAH!!!

We also found and taught Sergio who is the investigador that is married to a member. After years and years, he´s now read to be baptized. YEAH!!! He just has to quit smoking first. That´s going to be a little bit of a trial but we´re working on it. He used to smoking about 40 a day but now he´s down to 10. YEAH!!! That last 10 is hard for him to quit but we´ve got a bunch of different ideas to try out. If you have any ideas as well, digame.

We´re also working with a beautiful family of 5 – Jose, Claudia, Benjamin, Victoria, y Ana. They are Amazing! Claudia loves how she feels in the church, when she reads the Book of Mormon, when she prays, and everything. YEAH!!! Now we just have to work with her husband so he feels the same way.

And we found and tuaght Maria this week. She loves church and everything and her boyfriend is a member. And she wants to be baptized! YEAH!!! So we put a date and everything, she just needs to get married first with her boyfriend. But ya, we´re excited for a baptismo in Julio. YEAH!!!

So yep, miracles are happening in Villa Independencia. We just keep chugging along and we love seeing the miracles that happen everyday! Just know that I love you all and don´t suffer too much in the heat without me. J

Les kiero,

Hna. Ellsworth

Life is like a bowl of Locro

2010-05-31T09:31:00.000-07:00

I just had an amazing week! Probably the best week that I´ve had in the mission. The activity was a complete success and due to that, we have see many blessings and miracles this week. And I have a beautiful analogy about my week to share with you. I was going to compare my week with a banana split but then I realized something, I am in Argentina. And when in Argentina, do as the Argentinos do. So I´m going to compare my week with Locro. Be excited! And just for a little recap, in case you don´t know what Locro is. Locro is kind of like a stew and kind of like pudding. It has this beautiful yellow-orange color. The texture is somewhat pudding-like but they just like to throw anything they want in there- meat, beans, corn, vegetables, todo. It sounds weird but I actually liked it. Maybe I was such really hungry or something but I enjoyed it. All of the weird stuff they put in it turned into a delicious locro. SO, life is like a bowl of Locro. A bunch of stuff happens and you just have to run with it and enjoy it. And we had a ton of stuff happen this week, so I´m just going to compare the miracles we saw with the ingredients of locro.

Cow Intestine – So the day before the activity, we were inviting anybody and everybody to come and eat locro. Basically, we were standing on the side of the street yelling, ¨Somos Locos por Locro.¨ And we had tons of people stop and come to the actividad. And now we have new people to teach. I felt so ridiculous but I guess you have to do new and different things to see new and different results.

Pig Fat – We have been making desserts a ton. We made the cake of the Book of Mormon, and the sugar cookies of the flag of Argentina, and banana bread, and brownies, and shared with everyone. And everyone loved it. The funniest thing was when they ate the Book of Mormon. We put a ton of food coloring so it would have the dark blue color. And when everybody started eating it, their mouths were completely blue. Their teeth, their tongues, their lips. Everything completely blue!! It was pretty funny and delicious!

Onion – We had almost 100 in the actividad. Members, menos actives, inactivos, investigadores, Everybody!! My companion and I were running around the entire activity talking to everybody. It was a ton of fun! And we taught 15 lessons!

Chorizo – We had 27 Investigators that came to the actividad 25 of May.

Cow Stomach – We saw a miracle in the church. Half of our new investigators came to Church. And we had four different families!!

Corn – We have a new investigator named Sergio. He is the husband of one of the members but has never been interested in learning about the church for years and years. But he went to the activity and afterwards he came to us and asked us for the lessons. Usually, we have to ask to teach but HE ASKED US. And he went to Church!!

Beans - An entire family came to the actividad and then to church Sunday. Juan Jose and Claudia and their three kids. They have friends that are members and they are interested to know more. They really are amazing and are some of my favorite people.

Salsa – We have been working with an inactive family for the entire time I have been here and even before. We pass by every week and invite them to church but nothing ever happened. But they came to the actividad and then to Church!!! Lucas and Yesica are members that haven´t gone for a long time and Maria is married to Lucas and is not a member. But she wants to go to church and learn more!

Seriously, this week was full of Miracles. I love the mission and sharing the Gospel with everybody! The Gospel truly brings happiness and joy in our lives and I know because I am feeling it. But ya, I love you all! El Reino de Dios o Nada!

Les amo,

Hna. Ellsworth

The District

2010-05-31T09:00:00.000-07:00