Jess is a MISSIONARY!

Hello everyone! This is Jessica's little sister Whitney, and I will be taking care of her blog for her! Well, Jess is officially a missionary now and we took her to the airport and she flew down to MTC last wednesday! I know she would LOVE letters and presents from all her friends and family back home! You can use dearelder.com to send her letters! They are free, and arrive that same day! The letters are printed them off and given to Jess, so it helps because she doesnt have much time on the computer! Also, you can send her handwritten packages and letters at the following address for about the next 7 weeks! After that, she will be in Thailand!

Sister Jessica Ellis
OCT16  THAI-BAN
2009 N 900 E Unit 161
Provo UT 84602

Here is her letter! Enjoy :)

 

August 21, 2013 

Howdy!  

This first week has been nuts. but everyone kept telling us just to make it to sunday. i mean.... they cram to much information down your throat that you literally feel like you can't take it anymore. i don't think that i have ever learned so much in such a short amount of time thought. the spirit is definitely EVERYWHERE here.
just to satisfy rumors, there is a cream soda-smelling tree. i have smelled it. it is true. i add my witness to that fact.
dad wins the first letter award. by like 5 minutes. then taylor came in second.
also... do you know if my suitcase is ever going to get here? or did you even try to send it yet? my legs are getting kinda hairy. i wonder if my companions think i'm part ape...

a few facts about the mtc. i am old here.
i am at least 2 years old than most of the girls here... and 5 years older than most of the guys. it's amazing how little difference i am seeing between them and josh. we just sent off two laotian elders to california... they seemed a lot older. i am hoping that is the miracle of the mtc and that our elders have some hope... ;) but our district gets along really well. that is, until they try bossing me around. then i don't care for them as much.
i like the schedule. a lot. i don't really care for the lack of ability to be alone. like ever. i think i shall take a long solo car ride one day. this sounds agreeable.
but i love studying. like all day. i think it works quite nicely. 

we study, pray, eat, study, pray, study, teach...
we have to teach an "investigator" during the week. our investigator's name is txg. kinda sounds like tuck... but you don't really say the ck at the end. like tuh. but quick. we had to teach him the second day we were here, and the only thing we knew how to do was bear our testimony. then i think about it. i can bear my testimony in THAI! holy smokes!!!
we also know how to pray and kinda how to invite someone to be baptized. it's weird... they teach us missionary-type things to say while teaching us grammer principles. leave it to the church to be super duper efficient. 

i am kinda sick of the food already. they do have a pretty stinkin good wrap bar though. i've decided if i'm going to get any veggies in my diet, this is the most agreeable way to do it. i'm working on buidling up my tolerance to hot things... i usually have them throw in a few jalapenos. 

OHHH! and super cool news! i met this sister in our gym time playing volleyball. she said that she'd gone to thailand and just backpacked around with her friends. and she said she'd go with me!!! so. anyone who would like to go and cruise around thailand in 2015... we are now having tryouts. 

i was feeling a little left out, because my companion, sister peterson, was getting tons and tons of letters. i was just like, i KNOW my family loves me! they just don't know how to write well... ;) but, just in case you DIDN'T know... you can use dearelder.com and send me as many emails as you want EVERY DAY. and i get them THAT DAY. and it's free while i'm in the mtc. so... like 8 more weeks. you can repent.
i'm totally kidding. but i love you guys so much! 

we walked to devo last night... i kept secretly looking around the parking lot hoping you had decided to leave early and would be there... i couldn't see the burb though. you probably would have noticed the gigantic horde of missionaries leaving the marriot center, and in the middle would have been an especially tall blonde girl. who misses her family oodles!

ummmmm... well what more can i say?! i miss you all and love you so much! but i do know that this is exactly where i am supposed to be. i know it even more than i did a week ago. it's pretty amazing.