This week. was fantastic!!!

Oct 26, 2014

this week. was fantastic!!!

a little bit of a strange one. lots of random things happened... like mission tour... lots of random things that we spent a lot of time NOT in our area. (we left about noon on wednesday, got back at exactly 10:30, left at 6 AM on thursday and didn't get back home until around 6 that night. wow.) 

it was a really great meeting. we spent a lot of time talking about the sacrament. and it reminded me of how important it is. not only to remember how important it is as a member that goes to church every week... but.... that sometimes it is hard to remember that when teaching ABOUT the sacrament. it's easy to teach it as a list of things that we to do before they get baptized. but we (especially ME) needs to remember that we are teaching them HOW to worship. we are teaching them what they should expect from church. not just a list of things 'to do'. 

"oh remember, remember!" 

i've been thinking a lot about remembering lately. about how remembering is how we are able to repent. to stay free from sin. it is what alma repeatedly says in his teachings - that he REMEMBERED what the angel said to him. REMEMBER. 

so i'm working on it. remembering. it's hard. 

(says me... the person that has no more brain... my planner has turned into my brain for the last year...) 

i learned something. i want everyone to try it.

it's called "the bus test"

it goes like this: if you can love EVERYONE on a stinky, smelly bus the way that the savior loves them... then you know that you have charity. 

i tried it. it's a pretty hard test. and i had to be brutally honest with myself. cuz honestly... i DON'T always love them all like that. to throw another scripture into support: jesus christ said that we must love people like WE LOVE OURSELVES. and apparently i love myself a lot. 

the rest of the week was good.

:) 

TONY GOT BAPTIZED!!!!

he was... a black horse? if you can call it that... 

he called us this week, telling us that he was back in town and wanted to get baptized. apparently he thought that he just needed to come to church once... but... we knew that WE needed to know how much he believed/remembered/knew. we reviewed... everything. and he remembered it. we just always end up going back to the commandments. in telling him how important it is to keep the commandments... not half heartedly. we need to be avid? extreme? zealous? in keeping the commandments. (sorry if i come back home a zealot family....) he's a flight attendant, so he spends a lot of time in the air, away from home, etc etc etc... but he promised that he would find churches wherever he is. and the cool thing is... he didn't promise us. he knows that this is more than just a commitment to a couple of sister missionaries. it goes way deeper than that. 

i love this work! i love this gospel!!!

and i love YOU.

keep it up.

sister e

Organize my thoughts on a Sticky Note!

Oct 19, 2014

This week. i had to write it all down on a sticky note to help me to organize my thoughts. they were.... all OVER the place. and anyone that knows me... knows how i LOVE my stickies!

some days... i feel like a headless chicken. but for whatever reason... this headless chicken seems to "bump" into a lot of good things. so i've pretty much decided that it has nothing to do with poultry or food production... but a lot more to do with the spirit. 

the cool thing about serving the lord is when you are TRYING to do what god wants... he makes his will simply happen. no matter how much you seem to be bumbling around. 

for example. sometimes my companion and i get a little antsy and want to try new things. he. he. he. so we decided we were going to go try a huge market that is open on weekends. (we think the temptation of going to invite on sundays might be a little too... well... we decided saturday was a better option.) so we go... with the intent to eat lunch. we get there.... and no lunch. or very little as far as edible food options. BUT! we ran into a recent convert while we were there. see? god knows what he is doing. ALL THE TIME. so even when little sister missionaries have a desire to go and see a shopping place... he still makes it worth while. 

it's just funny to me, the things that end up happening in lessons. 

like teaching someone how to pray... and them asking if they can pray for a husband. hmmmmm. 

you can? but.... we couldn't guarantee and answer. it was pretty funny. 

we also got a cd from an investigator. it has 396 songs on it. a pretty hysterical cover... and we can't listen to it. thanks though.

the hardest part of missionary work is stepping back. and letting people make their own choices. but sometimes i feel like it is when we step back, and give people a little space... that god finally has enough room to give us someone else who is ready to learn. it's so weird. sometimes me (as a missionary) tends to cling to what i have. like i won't get anyone else if this person doesn't get baptized!!! but when we finally decided to let our investigator take his time... according to how he felt... we had a random person show up at church! (she showed up a few weeks ago with her dad... neither of them were members... but they were awesome!) she showed back up. and wants to be baptized. WHAT? sometimes i just have to pick my jaw up off of the floor. 

and the second miracle of the day was when a random contact from the bus stop ACTUALLY came to church. AND asked me what it was he had to do to change religions. more sweeping my jaw off the floor. 

that usually happens when god's plan supercedes mine. 

i love this work! it is the coolest! (to use a less than articulate phrase...) 

i love the fact that church in thai has actually become enjoyable... and not just an extended version of my language study. that was probably one of the lightbulb moments for me. was sitting in a gospel doctrine class... and realizing that i UNDERSTOOD what was going on. *fist pump!* 

i loved the lesson from yesterday... we talked about love. 

and i realized how much more love i feel now. unconditional love... that i know isn't innately present within me. it isn't just a natural thing for me to feel. there is a lot of love that is coming from heaven. to help me to know how god feels about his children. 

we read the commandment: to love others like we love ourselves. 

now THAT is something. 

i love myself a lot. i didn't realize it... until i heard that. i do! i think we all do. but how often do i love others as much as i love me? not very often. 

anyway.... i'm working on it. 

love is MORE than a feeling. 

love has a lot more to do with how we act than simply how we feel. if we don't do anything to show our love... it doesn't really have any meaning. 

a really cool thing this week was that mark and boss got confirmed! they both showed up a little late to the meeting... so in all, we had 3 confirmations... that happened at 3 different points in the meeting. ha. 

it was cool to see the change. i don't know if i felt it at 8 years old. it was just natural. but to watch the holy ghost come into the life of someone who hasn't had it before... was an amazing transformation to see. they were definitely the happiest people in the whole church building. 

gosh. i love them!

that is all that i have for today. 

except i wish i could just pour all of the miracles and feelings into this email. 

then everyone would understand. 

but... like moroni... you have to deal with the awkwardness of my hands in typing. (since i only get to practice my typing once a week.) 

hopefully there is something worthwhile in here.

i love you all.

i pray for you. and god is looking out for you.

you just need to ask him for a miracle. and he WILL give it to you! (we prayed for a songtaw today. and we got it 60 seconds later.) 

god is real. he loves us. 

sister ellis

ps. 

we found a new investigator. i don't know if he's interested in the church or my blood.... (if you download this... it is SUPPOSED to be upside down)

This week. Wow.

Oct 12, 2014

This week. Wow.

So here in thailand... we do not get to watch conference with the rest of the world. we must wait a week for it to be traslated. and if you are in my district, it doesn't get downloaded until 6 on sunday night... enough time to watch one session before heading home. and then you finish watching it on monday. (today)

so far so good! 

we were talking with one of our investigators... we brought an investigator who is from uganda to church (because we ASSUMED we would have it in english... oops.) so we watched mormon messages, the restoration video (after we taught him the restoration), and then started 17 miracles while we went to go and deal with our other investigators in the regular thai session. it was a stressful day. but we really didn't have to worry about moses. he hung out until noon. then decided that he was ready to go home. (yes. his name is moses. made teaching about prophets REALLY easy!) 

while we were teaching him, we were talking to him about prayer, and asked him how he prays. he said, "i ask god to go before me. and when he reaches that place before me, to prepare the people i meet for when i get there." 

i don't think he knew how profound that was! 

we indeed pray for god to go before us. all the time. and to help those who he is preparing for the time that we will meet them. 

on saturday we DID get to see all of conference. and wow... gotta love it! i got a lot of different answers than the ones that i had been asking for... but i am starting to rely on god's vision rather than my own. i think i need this, this and this. he can see a little bit farther and says, actually - you need THIS. it's a pretty awesome and humbling experience to realize that he knows me better than even I know myself......

the one thing that i think i've learned from a year (*gasp?!* when did that happen!?!) of serving... is that you make a plan... and then leave it up to god. sometimes... like friday... we make a plan. we leave the house... and the plan........ i don't actually know what happens to it. all i know is that we keep trying. and god makes miracles happen. 

on thursday i went on a switch off. my feelings toward switch offs has definitely changed... 

i remember hating them because it all felt like a test. of me needing to prove myself. my language... all of it. and then spending days fretting about and mourning over the switch off that was to come. (i hope i have learned my lesson...) i am excited for switch offs now. mostly because i love being able to see how other missionaries work. and to hopefully... in some way... help them to increase their testimony of the savior and of his cause. which now, is OUR cause. i see the ability to work with other missionaries as an opportunity to share my testimony with them in a more relaxed, drawn out setting than just in a 5 minute testimony. it is something that i look forward to in being a "member missionary"... i've realized how much MORE effective i can be at sharing the gospel... with my friends. we meet a lot of people through contacting. we change lots of lives in that way... but it still isn't the most effective way. one of our investigators got baptized yesterday. her name is Cin. (sounds like SIN but is short for CINDERELLA...) the miracle is that she was a referral from her sister. at the beginning, i think a lot of it was simply interest in what her sister was doing. but eventually... it turned into HER testimony of jesus christ. HER testimony of the gospel. so what we do when we share the gospel isn't fruitless. many times it just TAKES TIME. it means more than we think it does. 

on tuesday we got a little preview of conference... 

i loved president monson's admonition to not simply walk WHERE jesus walked (been there, done that) 

but to walk AS jesus walked. 

i thought that was profound. as i've studied more about jesus christ, i've come to know him. but as i've tried to LIVE my life in the way he did... that is what has truly changed how i feel about jesus christ. we truly come to know him as we serve him. and we serve him by serving our brothers and sisters. 

NOTHING ELSE CAN MAKE US WHAT HE CAN.

i know that this gospel is true. 

i was thinking about it the other day. this life... is HARD! all of it. and my life definitely is not the hardest one... but i know that is it the hard things in life that have made it so that i know what real happiness is. it is because of the trials that i have experienced that i am able to feel true joy. 

i wondered why i am so happy. but i know it is because i suffer more, i repent more, and i seek god more. 

i love you all. and i pray that we can all seek him and strive ever more to become like him!

sister ellis

ps. monday i saw alligators. and got hugged by an elephant. :)

You know it is a good week when:

Oct 5, 2014

you know it is a good week when:

you can't remember everything you did

you thought that monday just happened. and here it is AGAIN?

you have so many progressors that you don't know what to do with them...

you have too many blessings to possibly count. but we still try.

you find direct guidance from God in the scriptures.

you study about VISION.

you BRAFT like a crazy missionary.

you realize that this work is not just work... but a cause. 

you realize that English idioms... acutally sound really funny to other people. (who actually picked butterflies to be the things that fly around in your stomach???) 

you eat lunch with an investigator and his 76 year old mom. who then comes to church and spends the rest of the night with the youth... even though he is at least 20 years older then them all... 

you realize that "persuasion" is more than just a jane austen book. 

and finally... sunday. you pick up an investigator and walk him to church.

you have too many investigators you don't know what to do with.

you get a hand massage from the sister sitting next to you... yesssss...

you get to bear your testimony. 

and watch conference. (the RS session.) 

and you realize that you understand about 80% of what is going on. which is WAY better than the last time... when you understood just 20% and slept the rest of the time.... 

life is so good! 

we had a lot of miracles this week. 

#1 mark got baptized! 

we've been teaching her for about 3 or 4 months. pretty much as soon as i got here. she... has so much faith! and it has been a journey in teaching her. of watching her change. and seeing her willingness to follow the commandments and endure to the end. no matter what the cost!

#2 boss got baptized! (he's a boss.) 

a referral from his friend suki. a guy that got baptized only a month ago. who baptized his friend yesterday. it was a special moment. especially when suki had to help his friend down the stairs of the font (he took his glasses off because he couldn't wear them to get baptized... who knew that he was as blind as a bat?) 

#3 simple things come from prayers. we have a simple desire to work with members more... and then god sends us the means to work on them. he grants us more of the vision that we need to see HOW we can reach our goal. 

#4 i'm not good with lists... so i'm just going to say there were plenty more that i can't remember!

i had a couple of overriding thoughts this week: 

how wonderful this work is. 

how important members are.

and how important VISION is.

seriously. nothing we are doing makes any difference. we were counting all of our daters/progressors... and NONE of them came from contacting. except maybe one. the rest... were referrals from RCs... or LAs.... or they called us! It blew my mind. it made me think - hey! you have been doing EVERYTHING that you can. you can't give up and stop contacting... but look at how much heavenly father has been blessing you for simply trying to do his work! 

which leads to my next thought. members. are indispensable. (i spelled that wrong... yay for spell check!) 

this last week has pounded into my head over and over and over again how much the member have a role in what we are trying to do... and it is so easy to forget them! 

i don't really know how to fix this problem... other than to reach out to them more. to tell them how necessary they are (YOU are) in this work. in just being YOU. and inviting. 

lastly. VISION. president senior came to our district meeting on tuesday. that was freaky... giving an accountability of all of our investigators... with president in the same room.... my brain was like ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! 

we were talking about accountability. and about goals. 

then he stood up and started talking about goals. about how he hates them. 

and what is missionary work but goals????

seriously though. 

but what he said really impacted my thoughts on it. 

goals... once accomplished... actually become DEmotivating. once a team wins the superbowl... they get a ring and then they are done. and if they don't make it to the superbowl... they are a failure. so president encouraged us to start thinking more in terms of having a VISION. with goals merely as a stepping stone. and more than just focusing on the goal, to focus on the PROCESS. when we do that... everything else. the goals. the vision. just fall in place. 

i loved that thought. and it changed how i look at missionary work. it is more than just being able to write a "1" by the baptisms at the end of the week. it is looking forward in this persons life. to the temple. to exaltation. to eternal life. 

then goals... aren't as daunting. they become something to work for, but when accomplished, lead to bigger and better goals!

well. that's all for today. i love you so much!
keep the faith! 

stay strong!