WEEK 65 - Special Birthday Blog

I just wanted to give the biggest shout out to the most wonderful birthday people of December!!!! Ryan, Olivia and Lynsey!

 

How much i love you all!

 

Ryan: My dad, I love your funny jokes and pranks and your love to make other people happy! That's the gift to share joy and laughter. Thanks for always making me laugh with your happy spirit. I love that you have so much passion to live and to appreciate that world and the smaller things. I love that you love to read the best books and discover the secrets to life. I love you. My favorite dad and my favorite hugs. 

 

Olivia! The cutest one of all! Who's not so little anymore! I love your Christmas Card and that your mom tells me that you pray for me. I love your sweet nose and your cute smile. I love that you too are a little jokester and always make people happy. I love our time we share to together. Thanks for always making me feel happy to be around you. 

 

Lynsey: My best friend since the 6th grade! I think there are very few people in the world that have a best friend that long and I am so grateful to have you. And I know you'll be there for me for all the years to come as well. You've became more of a sister to me. I love you so much and love your passion for health and everything good! I love that you always look for the good in others, in the world and in every situation. I love all that you teach me and share with me. I love having so many of the same interests as you. So different, but so similar are we! 

WEEK 65 - The One to Come See the Lights

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Thank you so much for all the Christmas cards! I loved hearing from all of you! Unfortunately I left all the bookmarks and cards you sent me in the window and yesterday it started raining and thundering super hard! I was a little nervous but I thought everything would be okay, but when we got home our entire room was flooded and the outside hall too and all my books and cards and everything were soaking wet. Luckily we cleaned everything up and were able to save everything so that's a miracle, only one of my things has a weird smell now... 

   Christmas was wonderful! We had a reunion de zona the morning of and then afterwards we went to do service that I planned. We went to an old folks home and sang to them and gave them cake and it was really amazing, there were only like 12 of them, but not one of them had a visit of a loved one  that day so it was wonderful to be there with them. One woman in particular touched my heart so much. She had the light of Christ so stronger in her eyes. I know that the Lord loves her so much. I loved hugging her that Christmas day. 

  Here in South America they celebrate Christmas at midnight the 24th with fireworks and parties! This is my second Christmas in the mission but it's the first for the other three sisters in the house and one of them is American so I know that she had never seen something like this because we don't celebrate like this; so at midnight I ran to wake her up and when I woke her up she had such a  scared look on her face and I just said, "Its okay, Come and see, you don't want to miss this."  She looked at me not understanding and I just took her by the hand and took her to the balcony and when she saw the fireworks it was so beautiful! It reminded me that one year when Santa Claus came to our house and I woke my sister up up to go see him and she too was so scared, but we crawled out together onto the balcony to see and when we looked down she saw him and her eyes lit up and she immediately ran back to her bed to be a good girl. Love you Rileigh ;) What a blessing it is to be a big sister! I hope we can always invite the people we love to "Come see the Lights" The lights of Christ! It's something we don't want anyone to miss!!

 

Hermana Ellison 

 

Pictures:

Christmas with the Gold plates
Christmas tree
My companion and I
"Picana" Tradition food from Bolivia that they eat only on Christmas

 

WEEK 64 - The One for Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to all.

 

How I love you all so much and wish you all the best this beautiful day. I hope it's a white one. I love the warmth of this day. Even though it's cold outside there is such a special warmth to this day. IT could be the warmth of blankets and hot chocolate, fire and family hugs. It could be the Christmas lights or the sweet Christmas music, but I think it's something different. It's a warmth that can't come from material things or chocolate or fire, it's the warmth of the warm arms of our loving Heavenly Father, of which He has wrapped around us so tightly this day.  It's his warm hands that we feel guiding our lives. It's his sweet fire that gives us light and heat in times of need. And it's his greatest gift, Jesus Christ, The Son of God, That he sent us this Christmas to save our small souls. He is the Gift and He is the reason why. I love my greatest and most prized gift from my Father above, even my Savior Jesus Christ. May we all feel his warmth this Christmas morning and feel his loving embrace. Find the gift, accept the gift, share the gift. 

 

May your Christmas be merry and bright.

  Hermana Ellison

 

 

WEEK 63 - The One with the Bug Bites

Well I'm not sure what to write this week. There are a lot of bugs here in Bermejo and yesterday I forgot to use my Fexon cream and so I came home with a lot of blood dripping from my legs and a lot of white blochy marks. I'm super pretty!

 Its been raining a lot this week and its super cool because it rains a lot! All of our streets are dirt so when it rains they become mud and that's pretty cool haha. At night the thunder storms are incredible. It's like nothing you've ever heard before! They are so strong and loud!  It's little like the sky is cracking open and the world is ending. I think its left over effects of when Christ died and everything was destroyed in the Americas (3 nephi). But I love it. 

  We had alot of miracles this week! Don't forget we have a God of miracles. He loves you and is aware of you. Like Henry b Iyring quoted, 

"President George Q. Cannon said this about how God has prepared you  and me and our children for the tests we will face: “There is not one of usbut what God’s love has been expended upon. There is not one of us thatHe has not cared for and caressed. There is not one of us that He has not desired to save, and that He has not devised means to save. There is not  one of us that He has not given His angels charge concerning. We may  be insignificant and contemptible in our own eyes, and in the eyes of  others,but the truth remains that we are the children of God, and that He has actually given His angels—invisible beings of power and might—charge concerning us, and they watch over us and have us in their keeping.”

He hears our prayers and he loves us. Its so amazing seeing people pray for the first time. Alwasy remeber who you are and that the lord answers prayers. Pray on my dear brothers and sisters. :) Because he lives and has ears to hear. 

 Hermana Ellison

 

WEEK 62 -The One with Bermejo

   This last week we had transfers and I got transferred to Bermejo. Which is a little pueblo on the border of Argentina. I only have to cross the little river next to me and I'm in Argentina. I had to drive three hours from Tarjia to get here. The drive was so beautiful! It's super super hot here and December is the hottest time of the year. So a lot of people leave for December to go somewhere to get out of the heat, good news for the missionaries ha ha.  We are the only zone and missionaries here in Bermejo, so there are 10 elders here and only 4 sisters. I'm still sister trainging leader but there isn't much for me to do since there are only 4 of us, but I'm a "magnify your calling" kind of girl so I hope the sisters don't get overwhelmed by me since I just went from taking care of 8 sisters to 3. I'm in a Branch now not a ward, branch means there aren't enough members or priesthood holders for it to be a ward. So I'm in a branch and we are a District not a Stake. The members are really wonderful, I'm excited to work with them. My companion is super awesome. Her name is Hermana Garcia, from Peru. She is Alena Tuttle and Lynsey Carpenter mixed together, so I'm wonderfully thrilled to work with her. This Sunday was fast Sunday and wow you haven't fasted till you have fasted in Bermejo. Wow its hard. We started after lunch Saturday and we went to a lesson with a member at 6 and with the heat and not eating or drinking your body gets so tired and I was totally falling asleep in the lesson and the investigator wanted to give us water and I was like... oh Im sorry we are fasting and the member was like oh no sister, we are in Bermjo, if you don't drink a little bit of water you'll die ha. So I had a little cup. I really tried to make it but it was so hard. Maybe the next time I'll prepare myself better. 

   The people here talk really slow so they think that my spanish is fast haha. Which is funny. The members say my spanish is perfect but the elderly and the people who live in the campo still don't understand me. I have a lot to work on with my grammer. 

  It's so hot here that people fall asleep in our lessons. The other day we taught a lady and we watched my favorite video "because of him". And at the end I was totally in tears because I love it and then my copmanion and I look at her and she was asleep! We just started laughing hahaha. 

  By the way; a few things that happened in Tarija that I forgot to mention. The other day I antagonized a goat and it chased me for like 2 blocks on this cobbled street and there were a lot of kids on the side of the raod laughing and watching me.. so that was funny. 

  Also we had a conference for only sisters. And Hermana Willard asked me to lead it, which was really cool because Ive never done that before. But when I got there President wasn't there and so a sister said President had to leave and that when the time came I should start and invite some sisters to share their scriptures; so that's fine.    So we started and then President sends me a message that says, "go ahead and start and invite 3 or 4 sisters to share their personl study and then afterwards you speak with them as if you were President; what you think they need..." so my stomache dropped. Thanks President that's just great. He knew it would turn out okay, I ended up sharing the same scripture that Hermana Willard was going to share with us, the spirit works in many ways. 

 

Hermana Ellison

 

Some photos of our last day in Tarija and our drive to Bermejo.   Also, my new companion and my new friend Mr. Turtle.  I love it here!

 

 

WEEK 61 - The One with Joy

    This has been one of the most blessed weeks of my entire life. I don't know how I got so blessed.  I don't know if it was for obedience, for this 40 dias de ayuno, or just the sweet grace of the Lord, but I have been blessed beyond meaure. I can't even begin to describe the work, the happiness, the miracles that I have had this week; because I don't deserve it. I can't imagine any mission better than mine. The things I have done and seen here with this Ward... I have been so blessed. They changed my life, The Savior is changing me everyday. I always ask in my prayers for salvation, that I can be saved, that I can come home and he's doing it. I saw a less active become active in pretty much two weeks. I watched her change her children. I watched her take them by the hand and show them how to pray, I watched her look for Christ and show them the way. I saw a family baptized and rescued and now finally say "yes" to preparing to go to the temple, to be sealed for this life and the next. I've seen so much affliction and trial and happiness and blessings and mercies in this ward. I watched one of the most special people I've ever met, Fernando, get rescued this week and receive the priesthood. I watched a hermanador de oro become not only a friend but a sister and angel and a guide. We visited him one last time last night before he was rescued. It was the most amazing lesson I've ever had. I remembered the first day we met him and to watch him change has been a miracle. He's like my son. We taught about missions the other day and he said he might want to go but that he wasn't good enough and that he couldn't do it. We left him with our testimony and then the next day in church we were in the class and the teacher asked, "Fernando what kind of preparation are you going to do this week?" and he said, "I'm going to prepare for my mission." And then in that last lesson we talked about how the mission changed our lives, I shared my testimony of my mission and he smiled and I knew it was true. We got down on our knees and he said the last prayer, and he asked the Lord to bless us and he asked in words of true joy and peace that the Sisters (my companion, Eli and I) could please always be with him, if not in person.

 

I didn't do a good job, I failed at a lot of things, I'm still learning. I didn't reach a lot of my goals, but the Lord is correcting me, he's changing me and is showing me what's more important. I know what true joy is. I've felt it. I know there's a heaven. I know its all true and I feel the light of Christ everyday closer and closer. I can't thank Him enough. I don't think there is a gift I can give him for Christmas. There's nothing I could do to thank him. But I love Him. More than I could ever describe and for this Christmas, though it be small I think I'll give him my humility. Something I know I need to work on. I want to give him a more humbly servant so he can have more miracles. I just want to be more like Him. I think I'll give him my pride. 

 

The church has a new initiative, called. "He is the Gift" I'm sure some of you have seen it. But it's incredible. He truly is the Gift. How wonderful is our Father in Heaven, That he gave us his only begotten son, as our first and only real gift. 

 

Hermana Ellison

 

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/church-launches-he-is-the-gift-christmas-message

 

http://www.mormon.org/christmas

WEEK 60 - The One with the Sacrament

Quick email this week.... Yep that's it. 

 Hermana Ellison

 

Ha ha kidding. But I really don't have a lot to say. I learned a lot this week. The lord is so wonderful. And he never gets tired of being a God of miracles. The other day I was on an exchange with a sister and we went to visit one of our investigators that is progressing to baptism and the member that was going to go with us failed, so I was a little sad and when we got there, she opened the door and said she was washing her baby and if we could return in 30 minutes. So I said okay and when she closed the door I said a little pray in my heart that it would be so nice if a member could come with us because she is so wonderful. So we went a little ways up the mountain to see a less active member and she didn't answer, but while we were up there a member passed by and we said hi and said what are you doing?  She said she passing around so we invited her to the visit with us and she said yes! We went and  had a wonderful lesson with the member and she even made friends with her mom who hasn't wanted to listen really and it was a miracle.

 

The father of the member that we live with passed away yesterday. It's weird to see someone and say hi to that person everyday and then to not see them anymore. He was very old and died of natural causes. He was one of the oldest high priests here in this Ward and he hadn't come to church for a really long time because he can't hear very well.  Then this last fast Sunday, he got all dressed up and came to church. He took the Sacrament and bore his testimony. And then this Sunday he passed away. The Lord taught me a really good lesson, that the Sacrament is so important to God. He wants us to be clean. We need to take the Sacrament, and he prompted this man to do so before he entered his presence. That day in church he went to class and the sister that teaches the class said that he asked her what hymn they were going to sing and she said number 40 and he said great; next Sunday we will sing 41 ("how great thou art", his favorite) well... he didn't make it to church the next Sunday but we sang it for him yesterday and I thought that was pretty cool. 

Also; I cut my hair to give to kids with cancer. See the photos below

 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hermana Ellison