Story Time with Me

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

Hermana Ellsworth y Hermana McDonald

Missionary Choir

araña

We found chuck!

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

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

¡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

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!

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