From her Mission President~   Dear Family,                           

We are so happy to have met your wonderful missionary! We are so honored to work with her here in the Bolivia Santa Cruz Mission. It is obvious in her countenance that she has been prepared to serve the Lord at this time of the hastening of His work.

"And blessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my Zion at that day, for they shall have the gift and the power of the Holy Ghost; and if they endure unto the end they shall be lifted up at the last day, and shall be saved in the everlasting kingdom of the Lamb; and whoso shall publish peace, yea tidings of great joy, how beautiful upon the mountains shall they be."(1 Nephi 13:37)

Every time we look into the face of Sister Ellison we are reminded of the great love that God has for her and also of the great love, that you at home, have for this great missionary. We know that you pray for her every day. We also feel great love for her and pray every day for her well-being, spiritual growth, and happiness. We know that God hears and answers these prayers.

We have two daughters that are serving missions at this time. We also know of the tender feelings that come with having a missionary out in the field. We know that your influence will continue to be a great strength to your missionary. Your favorite scriptures, spiritual experiences, and expressions of love in weekly emails and handwritten letters will help them feel confidence in their ability to do this great work.

We thank you for all you have done and all you will continue to do to bless the work of  the salvation of God's children here in Bolivia. How grateful we are to have Sister Ellison here in the Bolivia Santa Cruz Mission. We love her so much! Please respond to let us know you received this email!

                                                                            With love, 

                                                                            President and Sister Willard

Here she is with her companion Hermana Lopez.

Week 7 - First week serving her mission in Bolivia!

Oh my heavens it is so hot here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its great though. I'm just pretty sweaty and nice all the time. I have no choice but to put my hair up everyday. Im here in the third ring! the city is in the middle and then there are eight rings around it. I'm in the third.  I'm the only one that stayed in the city area from my old district, the rest were flown out to outside areas. I don't even know how to describe it here honestly! Its great though, feels like home already. We walk alot. My companion had only been here for 6 weeks before I got here!

yeah thats unheard of; so she is still finishing her training while she trains me!!! Its crazy. She was so scared at first but she is absolutely amazing. We are so similar and we work so well together.

Her spanish is awesome so she helps me alot and I push her to do things. I'm the more aggressive one. ha I'm like...k ask him to be baptized, talk to me just say do it and she is like okay yeah lets!   Power house team. 

My area is hmmm.. everyone lives in like there own little compound so they have some kind of gate or a brick wall with a iron door thing and you use the lock to bang on the door or just yell and then you go into the compound and its like like rooms inside these brick shacks....I don't know how to describe it. But the people are so kind, seriously amazing. They are just relaxed to the extreme.... so its like i'll totally come to church be baptized why not and then you never hear from them again cause they are always sleeping. and Bolivian time is like you say 4 okay and you really me like 6:30. The members in our ward are just so nice and so loving its amazing! They don't have anyone to play the piano and they don't know the songs so I'm going to start practicing the piano instead of dinner time and they are teaching them how to read music and sing in relief society.... its way cool!!! Supposedly the era of knocking doors is over! and we are supposed to only work with the members and focus on referrals and menos activos but its a new concept that our ward is still working on so we still knock doors but we are trying to get them involved! its hard! we have a pensunista who cooks lunch for us and we make our own breakfast and dinner. The food is good so far! I had some famous Bolivian soup the other day pascata. or something. it was interesting!

I wish I could tell you what was in it!....  hahaha. 

I'm getting pretty dirty here so its going great. I'm working hard. There are lots of chickens and dogs everywhere.  Thanksgiving was fun! ha we celebrated a little by knocking on doors! I just love talking to everyone and praying with everyone we meet. We met this lady who is a Cholita meaning she is like a traditional Bolivian and she is so tiny and 80 years old and we help her carry her bags to this brick she sits on the side of the road and she told us she was in so much pain so I was like we are going to pray for you right now so we got on our knees in the dirt and said a prayer for her.... probably my favorite moment so far. Have hope. Let hope elude from you bones. be made of hope, do everything with hope. May the hope oh his glory and of eternal life rest in our minds forever.

Hermana Ellison

Leaving Bogota MTC

walking the streets of Santa Cruz Bolivia

Here is where i call home

here is my kitchen

I'M HERE!!!!  - Week 6  - Arrived in Bolivia

We got woken up this morning at 5:30am from a call from Elise at the Lima Peru airport.  We were lucky enough to speak to her for just over an hour.  We all talked to her and her sisters didn't go to Seminary.  It was wonderful to hear her voice and hear about all the things she is experiencing.  She is so excited to start the Mission part of her Mission.  She is ready for Bolivia and was so happy to be traveling.  She is getting her companion when she arrives, so today all the District 11 group were traveling together.  They left the Bogota MTC at midnight and traveled through the night on the Redeye.  Layover in Lima and then off to Bolivia.  Here is the email we received confirming that she arrived safely.   She is ready for letters and emails.  She says letters would be great because she doesn't have lots of time with the email, so she can re-read letters.  She is doing GREAT!  her parents love her.

 

From Elise;     I'm HERE!!!...OH my gosh I love it so much!!!!!! Bolivia is so cool! its like the jungle is green with dirt roads and then you get into the city and its a little more modern but not by much!! Definitely amazing. Its like Africa or Vietnam hah! My mission president and wife are seriously amazing!!!!! I love them so much.  My setting apart was right; they are perfect for me.   My mission president said my companion is my twin, he knows we were supposed to be together in the pre mortal life. How cool.

I love you so much I can't believe I'm here. love you I'm safe and happy 

Love you forever

Two more days till I'm outta here and oh my gosh i cant wait!! These last two weeks with the Latinos have been rough. Definitely a culture difference. They are funny though. The Peruvians think I look like Shakira hahahahaha. But yeah not really!! and there is always a hermana playing with my hair no matter what, and they just know me by my rubio hair. they say they can always tell where i am. Nothing to exciting this week just the same old lessons. I want to get started!!!!!!! I honestly cant wait. 

The last night as only North Americans all the hermanas snuck into the kitchen and ate all out snacks with the stand-in Presidents children haha. They loved our American food. they are the cutest kids. 

We randomly went proselyting the other day last minute, they just opened the gates and said k 40 minutes. so my companion and i just started walking and there was this young adult sitting on a swing so we went up to him and he spoke a little English! my favorite thing! we started talking and i showed him and Book of Mormon and he just loved it and as he was reading the words i just was so overwhelmed with he spirit. and then i was like here let me show you a scripture and he starts reading it and as he is reading he keeps pausing as if he cant believe the words that are on the page after he finished reading he points to the word meditate and he says do you mediate and i said of course its my favorite thing! Its so important to remember to listen after we pray and he said yeah i try to pray often sometimes i even think i hear something... and then he looked up at me with all curiosity that one thought can hold and with so much hope... as if this was the only thought that had ever sat in his mind, and asked do you think god speaks to us. With tears in my eyes i said yes, yes i know it it for a fact because i hear it to. God hears every word you say. I can promise you that. and then he looked down and said i prayed yesterday... i was having such a hard day, my girlfriend was pregnant and she lost the baby. she is actually in the medical center right behind us and that's why i'm out here and then you guys show up so just maybe... and then i finished his sentence with tears in my eyes, yes that's right its because you are special, you are a child of god and he hears you, he answers your prayers and he wants to take care of you. He was so grateful for the book of Mormon, he could believe we would give it to him for free. I told him all of gods love and all of gods answers were in that book.  I promised him i would pray for him as we walked away, Although i never wanted to leave him till i knew he was okay.  I came home and just fell on my knees in gratitude for this work and for the love of this sweet Child of God. God is love and Love cast-eth out fear. When we love we are in the presence of God. 

With all the Love i posses,

    Hermana Ellison 

Week 4/5.   This was from Last Week Nov. 5th.

 

So last week I had 49 emails!!! so wow thanks for all the love! and sorry if i wasn't able to get back to you. They only give us an hour!  But im loving Colombia! The food is great! Luckily I lost a lot of weight in Provo so I have some room!  I do miss my organic food though!

I have two companions! One of them is like my same person and the other is the next future relief society president I swear it!  In a few days it will mark my one month mark! can you believe it!  I get my latino compaion tomorrow! She is going to hate me, my spanish is so bad hahaha. Then in a week its off to Bolivia!

Colombia is awesome. I have been to the temple twice! Its beautiful.  I love tracting in the city! The city is crazy.  There is graffety on.. no joke every wall!   There was the coolest spray painting of michael jackson on this one wall!!!!!!! I love it! it was so cool.   The city is mostly brick and broken and dirty, but so much character!  If you look down the ally ways its just packed with two story brick apartments and tons of powerlines. The men dress super nice here! for the most part. Half the people are very stylish and other half less.  They have these horse drawn wagons that wonder around and pick up trash. 

Out in the country its beautiful!  We went to this mountian today and its so green and the mountinas are beaultiful. I saw like 12 giant vultures eating this dead pig today!  That was super narghly  . but fun. We went to this salt mine cathederal today. its this catherdral that is inside this old salt mine on the side of the mountain. it was so cool and way creepy!  so now i have all these scary pictures on my camera haha.   We play wall ball like no ones busniess here! and i'm actually pretty good!  I totally dominated and won! i waterfalled the ball and the poor guy had no chance. yesterday my companion had to go to the bathroom late at night and she was scared to walk throught the dark creepy hall and the second she left i was like yeah i need to scare her. so i got two of the other sisters to stand in the hall with me with our hair over our faces and she turned off the bathrrom light, walked into the hall turned on her headlamp and well the rest is history! she was a good sport though. it was hilarious.

 

Tracting is amazing!   We went to this park and we had been walking around for a while and no one really wanted to listen to us except some guys that wanted to take a picture with us. Then we met luis and victor!  Let me just tell you about Luis! We started talking to him and he was like I have been to 15 different churches I have been searching for god and haven't found him and I know that your message is good! my heart was so full! i couldnt believe how the hand of god was working in his life and he was ready for our message! He was so greatful for the book of mormon and couldn't wait to go to church!  Victor's friend was kind to but defineitly not as ready for our message, he just kept saying bonita bonita and i was like yeah im just going to pretend like i dont understand. haha he was so nice though and it was so amazing to see the difference of someone who had there heart open to Christ! WE gave them the church information and Victor kept asking if it was my number, my spanish isn't that good so i just said okay its mine, my number is the lords now.  haha so he'll just call the missionarys and who knows maybe he'll meet with them.

My favorite thing about the mission is that it isnt about me!!!!! We aren't here to be the smarest elder, the stylish sister, the best scriptorin, know the most about the gospel, we are here to be humble servants of the Lord!! Its a strick get over yourself environment! The number of facebook friends, or instagram followers or how popular or good looking you are doesnt matter here!!! Everything is about the Lord!! this is his work! and its the greatest thing I've ever been apart of!!!  I listen to the spirit soundtrack a lot. the hermans love it. i listen to Dear to the Heart of the Sheperd everyday! i wish that i was that song. I wish that it was made from my the marrow of my bones and the fiber of my being. I wish that i was that beautiful and pure. Send me out into the desert, seeking thy wondering sheep.

I read the best talk, its called and none were with him. Holland goes over all the betrayl great undergoes before he is crucifed. Judas, a witness of his miracles sells christ for 30 pieces of silver. Peter James and John fall asleep three times while Christ is suffering in the garden of gathsemeny, and peter alone denys chrsit three times. Even so Jesus knew that everyone would leave him. through his life he felt the pain of those he helped, he bled from every pore, and his brothers raised him to the cross with nails in his palms, and still this wasn't it.  This all lead up to the moment when he would endure the ultimate suffering. The only real defintion of true agony. The moment when The Father withdrew from his son, and no one was with him.  Chrsit suffered so that we may never be alone. He had to feel what it felt like to have the ultimate suffering that was humanly possible, which is being alone. I challenge you to read the events of the crucifaction of Christ and I gaurentee there is not a soul that can read these events and fully deny with all there heart that he is not the Savoir. We are engraved on the palms of his hands, he will not forget us. He is always there. Do not turn away. Doubt and fear are purly of Satan, the ultimate liar. Heavenly Father is alwasy there. There are no loop holes. Do not loose hope. My heart aches for the soul who has lost hope. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. We must endure to the end. Never loose !

Some pics I took

Email from Elder Adam Sevy; who was in the Bogota MTC at the same time.

Ryan,

I´m officially in Bolivia! Actually right in the middle in Trinidad, and I will tell you it is kind of crazy here! Like the wild west on motorcyles! I got to see Hermana Ellison (it felt weird typing that..) for about 8 days! It was seriously amazing to see her! I have a picture of us shaking hands,but no cord to connect my camera! I will se what I can do about that! Anyways I know she will be successful, you can just feel it in her! How is everything in Folsom?? I´m sure its wonderful! I love you guys, and before you know it we will be racing up another hill on our bikes!

Take care,

                Elder Sevy

WEEK 3 1/2

A lot of things this week!

Saying goodbye to provo was hard! I really loved it there, that place is so full of legacy, honor, and power of the lord! Colombia is amazing; very different though! when we got here there were only 11 missionaries here!! Then the next day all the lations arrived and there were about 40 of us all together but all the lations left yesterday....back to 15!  I loved talking to my family at the airport; what a blessing! You guys are all so funny! not as funny as me though! 

On the plane I got to listen to Les Mis! what a joy! the Epilogy was made for missionaries.  I get to be like the angel Fontine for 18 months. What could be better? The words of Fontine will ring in my ears everyday. I'll sing this in my heart to my brothers, 

 ''Çome with me, where chains will never bind you, all your grief at last is lost behind you. Lord in heaven look down on him in mercy.'"

And how glorious will it be when someone replys, 

   ''Forgive me all your trespasses and take me to your glory.''

This shall be my joy and ill sing,

  ''Take my hand I'll lead you to salvation, take my love for love is everlasting. Remember the words that once were spoken, to love another person is to see the face of God.''

What marvelous words! Take my love for love is everlasting! is love not eternal? I am bursting at the seems to love! I am here to invite others to Christ. Come with me where chains will never bind you. This gospel sets you free. The hymn "Dear to the Heart of the Shepered" is my new favorite hymn! Everyone listen to it! Its better. the Words are perfect. We got to go proselyting in the streets of Colombia! It was amzing i just wanted to talk to everyone! This old man came up to me and asked who I was and Ijust started talking all in spanish! And i was like; el libro de mormon es muy bella. and in spanish he was like as beutiufl as you young lady haha. I was like; oh stop you're making me blush!  and I totally ran into a pole while I was talking to someone else so I looked super cool!  It hurt.  It started pouring ran the other day! and part of the ceiling of one of the classrooms broke and the end of the hall was so flooded.  It's all fixed now though.  Elder Adam Sevy sang in church and I about cried! okay wait I did.   He sang Come Thou Fount and at the end he sang accapella and in English and I just was like this is the best day ever!!!   I bragged to everyone that he was in my ward.

We went to the Bogata Temple and it was all in spanish and well yeah that was rough but amazing. This is the greatest work on earth, this is my everything. I wish I had more time to write every feeling of my soul. Christ is in the very marrow of my bones. This is my light and everlasting joy!