WEEK 16 - The One with The Clinic

      This week I spent most of my time in the hospital! That's right my companion was very sick. We were in the clinic for four days. The first two days they didn't have any room for us so we started in the emergency room. and I'm not sure I can describe the emergency room here in Bolivia to you.  Anyways my companion had an infection and I stayed by her side the whole time trying to do everything for her. I sang to her, read to her, helped her when she needed to get up, lay back down, you name it I did it. And The whole time I was trying to figure out why are we here; what do I need to learn from this. I had no problem at all taking care of her, but I wanted to learn something, I'm just wanting to learn something. and what I came to the conclusion of was sometimes there isn't a big lesson to learn, sometimes we just have to be apart of life.  Sometimes we just have to take care of someone, have to help, love them, and just do it. You just have to sleep in a chair with cockroaches falling from the ceiling, and people coughing up lungs and just be okay. Just live, just be here. 

    My companion is doing much better and we are happy to be out of the clinic. I have such a fire to get back to this work, I look at my ward and know there is so much to be done, but more importantly I look at my companion as well and know that she is my investigator too. This cambio has really been hard.  My companion has had a lot of problems and we've been trying to work through them. Everyday we grow a little more and I know that I am here for her. 

    But on another note the clinic truly was fun and best of all the Lord always blesses us right when we need it. As I was sitting there in the emergency room something marvelous happened, I looked up for one second and what did I see... that's right Monica and Rachel from Friends on the TV next to us. I had no desire to watch TV, I promise but, this was just the thing I needed. I think its the first time I've been close to crying on my mission. ha! It was the scene where Ross moves in with Joey and Chandler and Ross does the hand signal for them to be quiet... ya you know the one.   This was the short scene I saw and it was perfect I just needed there voices and faces haha... oh the Lord knows me so well. I love this work with all my heart and I grow everyday. 

    I want to be the best person I can be, I will do everything for the Lord, I will refine myself till I am what I always needed and was supposed to be. I am a daughter of God and I will not stand in front of the Savior at the last day and allow him to ask me, "why did you give up, why did you give in?" 

 

Thus we prepare all the days of our lives and as we grow, death loses its sting, Hell loses its power, and we look forward to that day with anticipation of joy when He will come in his glory. Elder Bushe

 

    Hermana Ellison 

WEEK 15 - The One With the Micro!

This week I went to the Ramada! Its a crazy place, they sell everything there, and there are so many people. Everything is in these green tents and you walk through the middle of them and I kinda feel like I was in a James bond movie when he's running through some kind of third world market, ya know? It's crammed and exciting. They have these little clothes huts and a lady stands on a table and you hold something up and she tells you how much it is and its all so fast.. haha and they have so much food, I wanted to try it but I knew I would get sick.  I almost got hit but a micro! literraly so close.  I though I was hit and I accideintly said something bad I need to repent. My companion hit me on the head haha and said I wasn't allowed to cross the street anymore.

 

The work is hard but its great. Im fasting today so I studied the importance of fasting and wow, its the greatest thing ever! If we really studied the scriptures, if we look at the lives of all these ancients heros fasting and prayer is the key to everything.  Our soul, who we are, are spirit does not hunger, only our natural man, our body hungers and when we fast we give our soul the chance to overcome our body.  Fasting and Obedience break the bands of the natural man. What an amazing thing. Read Isaiah 58. Let the body hungry and let your spirit overcome.

Hermana Ellison

 

some pics of my day at the market;

 

 

Week 14 - The One With All the Breakups.

This cambio has been crazy! I have to show my companion around and introduce her to everyone so i have to use a lot more Spanish but it is great! my companion is from Peru and has so much love. It is her last month on the mission so its two very different perspectives! She has been having a hard time dealing with the thought of leaving, but i try my best to uplift her. It seems I'm always giving her pep talks and making her breakfast and trying to make this cambio as fun as possible for her. We laugh a lot, and she laughs a lot at my Spanish. The other day i read a scripture in English and she said, wow its really beautiful to hear you speak English, you sound intelligent. hahahaha Wow thanks! but the Spanish is coming. Sometimes in the mornings when i am tired i forget they don't speak English and accidentally speak to them in English.  Their faces get really funny. Its fun though because sometimes if they get frustrated with my Spanish I just speak in English to them. And i have this fun song i sing in English and its just all my thoughts and no one even knows. its a hoot. My companion is very touchy and lovey and well that's never been one of my strong suits. so it was hard for us in the beginning, but she loves when I sing to her in English, so i always sing Lead, Kindly Light in the streets to her.

The work is hard here, missionary work is like dating. I remember the first time an investigator called and broke up with us. He called and said I'm sorry i wasted your time i can't do this anymore, and then hung up. And the other day we went to an investigators house and she told us she couldn't take the lessons anymore because her husband wouldn't allow her to (symbolizing another man) and well every Sunday we get stood up at church. But my all time favorite is when they send there kid to the door to tell us they are gone or sleeping. And we say did they tell you they were sleeping or are they asleep, and without fail they say they told me. haha. But we knock and we knock and we share the gospel of Jesus Christ with everyone we meet. I have so much love for these people. Its hard for me when they close the door on the words of the Lord. Your salvation is knocking. But I'd knock forever, get made fun of, yelled at and ignored every day of my life for the lord. This work truly is amazing and honestly really fun.

With all my love,

Hermana Ellison

sweet girl 

They feed us so much food!

WEEK 13 - A New Year - 2014

My soul is so full of gratitude for this work that when I kneel down each night on my knees, they became bruised from the heaviness of my heart. This is all I have room to say.                 

    He lives,

        Hermana Ellison

 

Elise's New Companion - Hermana Ramos

Elise with Church girls