WEEK 33 - The One with Nothing Really

     This week has been great. We have been working hard visiting the members and menos activos, to strengthen the ward. We had ward conference and it was great to listen to the bishop and stake president talk and to have Presidente Duran in the consejo de barrio. We have 2 fantastic investigators that are progressing so much. One has been a forever investigator and when i arrived i knew i needed to share my story with her. So i shared my story about my grandma with her and how she was baptized while i was on my mission and now she did decide to be baptized even though her brother is serving a mission. We explained the importance of the temple and now she understands that if she gets baptized now she will be able to go into the Temple when her brother gets home, in one year. I love the power the temple brings to lessons.
       I feel so converted to the Lord this week, i know that my conversion isn't done yet but i feel so much stronger. I feel like the missionaries of the ancient days! What an honor. I finally understand the story of Peter, i finally understand why Christ asked him if he loved him three times. And its because when they first met Christ told him to leave his nets and come follow me, and Peter did for 3 glorious years, but what did he do after Christ was crucified? He went fishing again! And so Christ question really is, "do you love my? Then Why are you doing what i told you not to do? If you love me, leave your nets and feed my sheep?" And Christ asks us all the question, Do you love me? then forget about yourself and do my work, feed my sheep. And do it Forever.

    By the way it just started getting super sold here and we don't have hot water for very long so I'm not going to wash my hair anymore I'm just going to dread it. 

We went to a vineyard!

Hermana Ellison

WEEK 32 - The One with the Examples

​        Aloha. I hope that you are all doing well and your week was great. This week was great for us, we worked diligently in la vina and had a lot of miracles.  Because every day is a miracle! One of the lords investigators that we inherited from the old area before we were here was baptized. It has been a privilege to work with her, get to know her and help her come unto Christ. Her baptism was scheduled for Saturday so we went to her house to walk with her to the church. When we found that she was quite sick and in bed. We called the elders and the bishop to give her a blessing and we ran to the pharmacy to get her some medicine. The blessing that was given to her was filled with the spirit and we rescheduled her baptism for the next morning. We stayed with her for a moment to make sure she was okay and we shared a hymn and knelt in pray. It was one of my favorite experiences I have had to kneel at her bed with my companion and offer a pray. I think my companion might have given one of the most beautiful prayers I have ever heard. Nelly is such a blessing in my life and I'll never forget her sick in her bed, when she handed me 2 bolivianos and said, "Can i pay my tithing with this? Is it enough?" What an example of faith, i will carry that moment with me forever and i will always be a faithful tithe payer like our sweet Nelly. The next morning before sacrament meeting Nelly was baptized and it was just amazing, she is such a light and seriously so funny.

I've been really sick these last few days. That's probably the worst thing about the mission, when you get sick because you just want to work! ha. My whole body aches so bad and my head oh man and I didn't sleep on my hay bed very well but I'm taking ibuprofen and going out to preach the word anyways!!! haha.

I share my families story with everyone. I shared a story about my mom with an investigator and she loved it so much that she is going to try to find you on Facebook, and she accepted the invitation to be baptized because some years ago, you Sheryl, accepted the invitation to be baptized. I shared the story of my grandma Astrid with the woman who was waiting for her brother to get back from his mission to be baptized and because she could relate with You Grandma, and because you accepted the invitation to be baptized, she did too. She understands that if she gets baptized now she will be able to go into the temple with her brother when she gets home. Thank you so much for all you examples. I love my family! I'm so honored to carry the name Ellison on my plaque.

Life is funny, No?

That's my message this week that well life is good! Life doesn't have to be all that hard, it is what you look for. We have to learn to change our eyes, to look at something in a different way. Life is funny! We have to laugh more, be more easy going, be happier, be nicer. Just give up what you want sometimes and serve someone. Work hard and have fun. Life is beautiful, don't waste it.

Hermana Ellison

Nelly getting batptized!

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Happy Birthday Grandma Astrid!!

Tarjia

WEEK 31 - The One with Traija

    My last few days in San Pedro were bitter sweet. I thank the lord with all my heart for letting me work in his area and work with his children, i truly love the people of San Pedro. It was a special moment for me to receive my transfer and give a pray of thanks for the work he let me be apart of. I had a sweet confirmation that the lord and I did good work there and its a feeling I want to bring to all of my areas and at the end of ever transfer. A member once said to me at the end of your mission you ll be content to go home if you've done all you can, and you'll be pained if you haven't. Its not easy to leave the people you love but when you've done good work and know there is more work to do it makes it possible. My sweet hija (my last companion) is so wonderful it was hard to say goodbye to her, we didn't always get along because well you know how kids are! and I'm kinda strict I realized haha. But obedience brings miracles! so I laid down the rules pretty hard, with love! but it wasn't always perfect. My companions mom passed away when she was younger so i didn't know the effect that i would have on her as her "mom" in the mission. I prayed every day of her transfer for her, to love her, help her and lift her up. At times i never saw the results, and at times it felt like she hated me, but one moment made it all worth it. As we were about to say our goodbyes i realized that she had been sad all week, Sandra asked her why and she said because she is leaving... Shocker i didn't really think she liked me. Then as we went in for our last hug with tears in her eyes she said, "I love you, mom" I learned a valuable lessons, I'm so glad that in times of frustration i never used harsh words or was mean, I'm so glad i taught the rules of the mission with love. Love your children, you don't know what will happen, live the standards and be strict with love and one day they will thank you.

   Ive been transferred to a place called Tarija and its supposedly the most beautiful place in our mission. When i imagined serving in Bolivia this is what i pictured, this place is legit.  My companion and i are opening and area and are opening a new zone as well. The zone is called La Vina which means the Vineyard, Cool huh? so there are officially three zones now in Tarija and one stake, my ward is celebrating its one year anniversary this week.  My bed is made of straw, Literally! its hard as a rock and i rarely have hot water, and the bathroom is outside, its cold here but i love it.

   I'm so blessed to be here in Tarija it truly is beautiful and the people are amazing. Its interesting to get a transfer a new companion, new area, and wonder.. Why? Not a bad why but a simple what does the lord have in store for me here, what needs to be done here, why does he want me here, what can i do for him, what can i do for my companion, what is the purpose. I love the name of our new zone La Vina its a privilege to open this zone, the name really hits my heart. I just want to do humble work for the lord, i just want to work in his vineyard.

   Yesterday we started our transfer with a fast and we had a miracle. We went to a house for your cita and our investigator answered the door and said I'm so sorry hermanas but we are having a party and all my family is here but you can come in and eat and share a little message with me. So we entered ate quickly and with 20 people around us we asked could we share with all of you family? she said of course ahah. So she got up to the front of the room and said yeah come up,... haha so we stood up in front of all of her family and gave a small message of the family, i bore testimony of my Savior and one member that was present read a letter of her missionary that is out in the field. it was a beautiful lesson, strongly filled with the spirit that i will never forget and they are all going to get baptized. haha.

Hermana Ellison

WEEK 30 - The One with the Shoes

   This week we tried to find more or the menos activos in our area and the converso reciente. And wow have I felt such a special love for them. I love working with menos activos.  They are so loved the lord cares for them so much I cant believe it. We have several converso recipients that were baptized before I arrived in San Pedro and never received the Priesthood, that just doesn't sit well with me. We have been visiting two of them and they are both so amazing, we had a lesson about the power of seminary and serving a mission, thanks to the holy spirit and the Mormon messages we have, the lesson was amazing and both of them accepted the invitation to receive the priesthood and serve missions, which is the first time either one of them has accepted that! The following Sunday my heart was so full to see Jose carrying the pan and water after the sacrament to help out the other boys. He is so ready to pass the sacrament and I can't wait for him to take that next step.

     This last Monday we went to eat at Sandra and Elizabeth's house and I forgot that here in Bolivia they don't ever take out the bones in the meat so I was eating a dish and didn't realize it had bones in it, so I took a bite and well lets just say I thought it was some burnt cheese or some burnt hard meat so yeah.. I ate chicken bones, I was pretty concerned afterwards.

    We visited a member this week to help with a reference that she wants us to work with and as we were talking with her she said, Ive been thinking about you a lot lately, you have been in this ward for so long now and I thought why is that? What is your job here??. Hermana Ellison you're the Sembradora here (sower, planter). Your planting seeds and preparing all those here in San Pedro to receive the gospel. It was a eye opener to me. What a great calling, a preparatory calling. Sometimes we just have to plant the seed, they won't always accept it but I hope every person in San Pedro will remember that day some blond girl stopped them in the street and bore her testimony that the heavens have spoken and the truth is restored.

      One of our menos activos we are working with is so sweet, she tells me every visit... "your shoes are to old and worn down and ugly!" haha and insists on buying me new ones! I always protest and say the only gift I need is your spirit in the church this Sunday. So one day we went to visit her and she sat me down and she said, "I'm sorry but I bought you new shoes, and its because you are persistent. You never gave up on me and when I didn't come to church you were at my door asking me why, your shoes are old because you walk to my house so much." The work of the Lord isn't in our numbers; the work is in the love we give. I have imagined more lately the Savior working through me, when I'm in a lesson or with my companion I imagine that he is working through me, I imagine what would he do right now. I think to myself why does anyone want to talk to me, why do the kids always want to hug us, why do people invite the missionaries into their home. Its because we are under Shepard's, we are his representatives, his hands are in mine., His heart is in mine. I love my old shoes and the new meaning they give to me. They remind me to keep working, they remind me that no one is too far for me to walk to, no one is to far for the Lord to reach. The remind me to use all of my energy, every part of me to give to others.

P.S. Everyone do family home evening. Satan is attacking the family we have to defeat him. We have to strengthen the family! When I was in middle school I used to write on all the desks "Save the Whales" (my trademark) but I think I might change it to "Save the Family!"

Hermana Ellison

Church

service project

investigator and his rabbit

investigator kids learning to pray

her very worn shoes!

WEEK 29 - The one with the Calling

        This week we had a lot of miracles. The past week our recent convert Sandra received her first calling! The day was amazing and she was so excited, a week past and I asked her; Sandra what are you most excited about for your calling? Then she started to describe her week to me. As her eyes began to water she began to describe to me her situation, she said she had been searching so hard for a job and every companion turned her down this week, she was devastated. And then Sunday came, she was called into the office and she said when he told her the Lord called her as the Young Woman's secretary she began to cry. She said, "No one all week would accept her, no one wanted her, but the Lord wanted me, there was a place for me in his church." She said I then promised to do everything for the Lord first, her calling first and then her job. Wow what an example of faith, charity and love. I'm so grateful to be apart of her life and watch her change, grow, and come unto to Christ.      
        This week we met an amazing a family of 6 and they agreed to be baptized and come to church with us. What a feeling to sit in front of a complete, humble family who were hungry for the gospel. Sunday was such a day of joy to sit with them in the chapel. The family has such a desire to learn, grow, and be apart of this church.

   My emails are always serious it seems but a lot of funny stuff happens I promise, I laugh pretty much all day. The other week we had a lesson with the two of the greatest people ever, Sandra, who was baptized and Elizabeth, her sister and Elizabeth said I don't know you guys I need to talk to my church... and then she walked out and Sandra said, "I don't know what she is talking about, she doesn't have a church." I laughed so hard. haha.  but no worries She prayed and now knows the church is true and is going to be baptized.   Also the other day I was in a family home evening with some members and I was showing them pictures of my family and I had just told them how my dad makes all the guys I go on dates with take a test before we leave the house and this young man, Rodrigo, he is 18 years old, points to Rileigh and says, "So your dad needs to give me the test." hahahaha. It was so awesome!!

Miracles exist, sometimes we have to wait for them but they exist. The work isn't always easy. Sometimes the hardest part is that we feel we don't have anything to do, we aren't making progress, but every step I take in the streets of Bolivia is not only progress but a miracle. The fact that even one person saw the name of Jesus Christ above  my heart is a miracle. 

 

Still all my song shall be, nearer my god to thee. I will praise him all the day long, all is well and all will always be well.

  Hermana Ellison

 

 

 

WEEK 28 - The One with Easter

Well my favorite holiday has come and gone!! Easter is my favorite day of all time. Every day during this week I study about the Savior and his last week on earth and applied it to my work. I know that for every missionary they say that Christmas is the most spiritual day on the mission, but I'd think I'd have to disagree. Easter is everything to me and was the same here on the mission. 
      Thursday was the day that Christ was in the garden of Gethsemane I thought of him suffering for our pain while the apostles slept just a few steps away, I asked myself... How am I sleep while my Savior is suffering. I promised myself this Thursday I would not sleep this day. At the end of the day as I promised him I wouldn't sleep, all our appointments fell through, with a desire to work I prayed to find someone. We went to a previous investigator and started to teach his son, i'll never forget his eyes as we taught him the plan of salvation, at the end of the lesson he said, thank you for bringing me my salvation.
    The Friday that followed was probably the most interesting day of my life. Good Friday is a sacred day in Bolivia. What they do is all the families take out big tables and make a shrine of Christ in front of there house, with pictures and crosses and they just sit there all day... And all of the Catholics walk together singing songs and holding the cross. It hit me so hard that my Savior lives this day and I had to share it with someone. So I saw a family sitting with there shrine and I thought; okay them, I told my companion, "WE are going to sing to them." she said no! ha ha. We are not. But your in training kid, so I walked over anyways ha ha. We started to talk to them kindly asking how their day was and what it meant to them. As the oldest man began to talk to me abruptly he said, "look at your clothes, you Mormons are so rich, nice shoes, you have everything, there are kids in the streets that don't have food and look at you,  I worship God not men." With the gospel in my heart, I said, "I'm so grateful I left my home for 18 months so that I could meet you, I'm so grateful I left it all to be here. I know that our Savior loves you and I know without a doubt that he lives, It does not end here this Friday, but Sunday will come and he lives." I then asked if I could sing a hymn with them, my companion and I sang "I know that my redeemer lives", left them with a prayer and went on our way. I finally understood one of my favorite scriptures, Luke 24,5-6 that says, " why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but he is risen." Sunday will always come.
       This Easter Sunday was a miracle. We started our proselyting time by ending our fast the day before and we were off, we went to contact a reference we had received and it was a miracle, he was there! Not only was he there but his family was there too and we asked them to join in. (even if the father is sleeping, you wake him up and ask him to join, they love me in Bolivia). They started to tell us of there daughter who passed away a month ago, as tears fell your their eyes, so did they from mine. I took out the plan of salvation pamphlet and puzzle from my bag and took a moment in my heart to thank the Lord for the plan that I was about to share on the very day that made this plan all possible. I could not have thought of a better way to spend my Easter Sunday then teaching a family about the plan of salvation. They accepted the invitation to be baptism and I'm so excited to bring them to church.
       There is nothing better then talking about our brother. I love this work and this week. Because of this past Sunday we are free, because of that day we can return, because of Him we are eternal.  I know that my redeemer lives.

    He lives,

       Hermana Ellison

 

WEEK 27 - The One with Mistakes

  I'll let you in on a little secret, I am incredibly hard on myself. And I know it and Satan knows it. He knows that I have a testimony. He knows that I don't have fear to talk to people, or knock on a door or invite someone to be baptized, but he knows that if I make a mistake, if I do something wrong, it can hinder my development and my work a great deal. So I've been trying to figure out how to cope with it, because as I'm sure you know every email I send is about self mastery, obedience, control, being better everyday! and in reality that is what I want. I want to live so close in the light of Christ. I want his will to be mine, but I have to accept the reality that I'm going to make mistakes! and for me this is a reality that I never wanted to come to the conclusion of.  But something amazing happened. Once I came to this reality I realized I wasn't the first. The scriptures and the atonement all of the sudden had a whole new meaning! I was reading in the scriptures and wow I'm not the first one to make a mistake! Nefi, Alma the younger, Enos; Who felt so bad for his mistakes prayed day and night for forgiveness! And not only that, their stories are there in the Book of Mormon for the whole world to see!

      I was reading a talk by Henry B. Erying and he said he had an assignment to talk with other church orginizations and he was so nervous, so he called Presdient Gordon B. Hinkley and all he said was, "use your best judgment." How many times have we felt like that, that we are inadequete and can't do it, so we call for help, and what do our leaders or the Lord say, "use your best judgment".  I trust you! The lord Knows we are not perfect. Erying then continues to say that he prayed all night for what to say, what to do, that he was so inadequete, he says that the lord answered with an almost rebuke, "forget yourself, and pray for the people you want to serve." Wow not only can we relate this to ourselves, but I am so grateful that this general authority, this man of much wisdom, made a mistake and wasn't afriad to share it with us, wasn't afraid to share his consejo from the lord. I'm so grateful for the leaders and examples in the scriptures. The lord knows I'm not perfect but I will continue to press forward, I will not be afraid of my mistakes. I will share and lift others and most importantly I will forget about myself!

    The pain of failure, the pain of rejection only lasts for a small moment and only comes because we are thinking of ourselves.

     I'm grateful for the Lords area, the lords work and the lords miracle, that are always according to our own faith! Every miracle in the scripture done by Christ is followed by, because of your faith...

    Oh how I love my Savior.  There is no one who knows me better and there is no one I want to know better.

    Hermana Ellison

 

6 month mark

Gifts from Home

Slippers for all

Hermanas new Slippers

Slippers or cheetah ears?