Dec 31

Dear Family,
Hello! I love you all so much! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for everything you all sent me! I really appreciate everything. I know it´s really expensive to send anything these days—esp. to Cuiabá, Brazil! Please know that I know I am in your prayers and that is the best thing you could send my way. I don´t expect yáll to send anything else the whole rest of the time I´m down here. You all have already gone way above and beyond the call of duty. Thank you for being so wonderful!

Question: Is it better to drink a whole bunch of soda—and get fat--(that´s what they always offer at lunch) or possibly contaminated water?

Spencer—In Portugal, do they normally feed yáll lunch or dinner? That´s great that you are getting so much help from the members! That really is so helpful!

Natalie—Thanks for the email. I loved hearing from you. I´m glad yáll had a good Christmas with your parents and John/Laura and Mark/Aup. Tell Sam my Christmas was great! I loved hearing from him! Give him a hug and a kiss from me.

John—Brother Moses sent me a card this week asking for word of my ´mission successes´. He asked you to pass along the word to him. I´m going to write the ward a letter today so could you let him know I´ll send it to his address? Also, I trust you can pass along any other good news I´ve shared in the last weeks with him in the meantime. Thanks!

So, Christmas was wonderful. We ate dinner at Pres. Milder´s house and it was amazing! I´m pretty sure I gained a whole bunch of weight just this last week with all the good food we ate! They had pb and chocolate parfait and a chocolate fountain for dessert. We performed Rudolph with paper red noses and choreography and it was a hit! Pres. Milder recorded it. Dad—can you ask him to email you a copy of it and save it for me too?  Christmas day, I talked to Mom, Dad, Em, and Spencer (THANKS Dad for making that work! That was the best present ever!). Then we had another huge meal.

But…in other news, I helped accompany the stake choir as you all know. They had a Christmas performance a couple weeks ago. We were running home afterwards to make it home on time, and I tripped on the uneven sidewalk and ate it in front of a whole bunch of members!! It was really embarrassing, and yet hilarious at the same time. Somehow, Pres. Milder found out and now he always checks up on me, asking if I´ve had any recent falls! Hahaha!

Right now, we are working with a couple inactive girls and their families. Heavenly Father really is in charge of this work. We went to this neighborhood to contact a referral. He wasn´t home and I really had to use the bathroom. So, we stopped next door at an icecream place. The girl behind the counter said she had been baptized in the church! (This happens about every day—us finding someone new who has been baptized already). So, we started teaching her and her sister. They both went to church Sunday. We´re trying to mark the baptism of the sister, but she´s being kinda difficult. However, we are still going to show love for her and trust in the Lord´s help. It really is amazing how Heavenly Father guides us. I am so grateful for the Holy Spirit and the promptings I receive to do this work.

We see so many miracles everyday, just from following the promptings of the Spirit. By following these promptings, we know exactly where to go and what to say. It is so wonderful to be an instrument in the Lord´s hands! Another sweet experience happened Sunday. We went back after a week to do acompanhamento with an aunt of a member. I thought she wasn´t going to want anything b/c she didn´t go to Church 2 Sundays in a row. We were waiting for the bus and it completely passed us by even though we were giving the signal. By the time the next one came by, we were already over half an hour late for the appointment. Sister Bulhoes was considering not going, yet I just wanted to get it over with. I didn´t want to be accountable for not following up with an investigator—esp. a referral from a member. When we arrived, she greeted us saying, she had begun to think we weren´t coming! Yet, she had been waiting for us (even though we marked the appointment over a week ago). She had prayed, read, and received an answer! Her 7 year old daughter had also read the whole livreto we left with them. Luciana (this lady) had a lot of questions about baptism.  The whole family said they´d come to church this Sunday! I´m so excited!! They are such a beautiful family and I know Heavenly Father has been preparing them. I am so grateful we didn´t give up on them before even giving them a chance. What a blessing it is to have the guidance of the Holy Ghost, helping us to know where we need to be, when we need to be there.

I just want you all to know that I am so grateful to be a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. I can´t believe I have been so blessed to serve a mission. This really has been the best decision I have ever made. I am learning so much about how to serve others, and improve myself. Thank you for all your support, love, letters, and prayers. I appreciate you all more than words can express.

Love, Sister Rachel Ellis

P.S. This week, Pres. Milder had us study John—3 chapters a day—so we could come to know our Savior more and understand the honor it is to be His representative. It was a very sweet experience for me. I highly recommend studying John to everyone with a desire to come to know their Savior better. He gave us His perfect example of obedience and service. He invited us all to follow His example. Yet, how can we follow His example if we don´t even know what all He did?

NATAL!!

Dear Family,
Hello! Feliz Véspera de Natal! (For those of you who don´t “fala português” that´s Portuguese for …. Merry Christmas Eve!!) ;)
I can´t believe it´s already Christmas again! This year totally flew by! And another Christmas finds me in sunny, warm, exotic, tropical Brazil! (aka Paradise—at least that´s what Webster´s Dictionary told me Brazil meant!) hahaha!
I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!! I am so grateful to serve my Heavenly Father and Savior—especially at Christmas time!
Well, life is going well here. I´m still in my first area, Cuiabá with my trainer, Sister Bulhões. Now, we have two other sisters living with us which is a blast! One is a gaucha (from the South) and the other is from Utah. Everyone thinks Sister Reynolds and I are sisters because she has auburn hair and basically the same skin tone—I believe Anne of Green Gables described it as a ´rose leaf complexion´. Hahaha! Really, that´s a poetic way of saying pasty white, but with this sun, our arms and faces are getting quite tan.
We have been witnessing many miracles every day here. I love it! Among other things, we visited both Patrícia and Guilherme (the Pasqualin cousins that live here in my area). I know it isn´t chance that I got sent to the exact mission where they live. Our visits were very fun (they are very sweet, good people), but they don´t really want anything with the Church at this point. I´m still going to call to invite them to Church though. Who knows when they will be touched with the desire to know more. We gave Tuka a Mundo Feliz DVD and tried to mark with her and her husband, but she gave an excuse that she´s really busy til after Christmas. So, after Christmas when Marina comes to visit, I´m definitely going to hold her to that compromisso! We taught Guilherme and his wife the first lesson, gave them a Mundo Feliz DVD and Book of Mormon, but they didn´t pray because they stayed up with family til about 2am. It was really good we visited them though because even with all the years of contact with our family, they never really knew much about the Church or what we believe. God moves in mysterious ways and the seed has been planted! I am going to continue to pray on their behalf. Both women are pregnant so maybe this will open up another opportunity. :) We had our Christmas Zone Conference and us missionaries (sisters in our apartment) received a call from Pres. Milder, asking us to prepare 2-3 hymns. They turned out really well and helped invite the Spirit even stronger into our conference. I love learning more about the gospel and strengthening my relationship with my Savior! I have such a long way to go to arrive where I want, but I am taking things one step at a time, one principle at a time, one attribute of Christ at a time. I feel stronger and stronger every day God´s love for me and the direction of the Spirit. It is such a blessing to serve a mission! I wouldn´t trade this experience for anything in the world!
Tonight we are going to have dinner with Pres. Milder´s family. We are going to sing some more hymns for them (Sister Milder asked us to). But, we´re going to start with a special rendition of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer complete with choreography! HAHAHA! I´m really excited! We´re going to video it for y´all to see when I get home. We´ll see how President Milder likes it! Hahaha!
We have planned a great service project for Christmas Day, but I´ll tell y´all more about that after it happens (next week). How´s that for a cliff hanger?! Tune in next week!
Love, Sister Ellis III
P.S. Thanks for whoever helped with my email, but it´s again at 91 %. Mom and Dad—could you please start printing off and deleting the emails for me? Thanks!
P.P.S. Thanks Matt for the email. I appreciate all your insights and experiences and encouragement.
P.P.S.S. Thanks, Kit for the photo book. And Kev, Ryn, and Elle. I loved it! Sorry I opened it before Christmas, but I already knew what it was and wanted to show off my beautiful family!
P.P.P.S.S. That sounds awesome Mom and Dad and Em the program at the CTM. Who´s going to be Joseph?! ;) Remember Em, you have to wait for him for 2 years. Hahaha! I´m excited to hear how it goes. Til tomorrow! I´m so excited to talk to y´all I can hardly stand it!!!!!!

Dec 17

FELIZ NATAL!!!
I am so happy to be serving this month! It is a great month to preach the gospel. Last Saturday, we had a fireside about the missionary work to help the members understand their place and how they can help strengthen the ward. Only 9 members showed up, but it ended up turning out really well. We received a lot of references and have already contacted them all. I´m excited to get these members working with our member lessons teaching their referrals!
With this last transfer, I stayed here with Sis. Bulhoes and two other sisters moved in. Sister Reynolds from Aurora, UT, and Sister Aguiar (fresh from the CTM) who is a gaucha. We are having a lot of fun together! The cleaning of the house got done a lot quicker with 4 sisters so that was nice. Sister Reynolds plays the flute, piano, and sings too so we´re having a lot of fun. Today we´re going to play basketball together with some members.
Sorry, Mom and Dad. I didn´t know I wasn´t supposed to open that til Christmas. I´ll wait with the other ones I promise! Thanks to Mom, Dad, Natalie, Matt, Kelly, and Becky for the packages I received. I loved them! I especially loved the pictures, Nat. Thanks!
Dad—Our cell phone is 9989-9016. That plan sounds great. Let me know what you end up working out. I´m pretty flexible.  Dad—I´ve been hearing some rumors about banks closing, etc in the US. I know I shouldn´t worry, but I just wanted to make sure my CDs are safe. Do you think it´d be better to just take the money out of the banks and keep it in a safe or something? Anyways, I trust you.
Mom—Are you printing off the emails from my missionary friends? I´d really like to receive some of those snail mail if at all possible. I know you´re busy. Also, when you get a minute, could you send me the recipie for those cookies you made the first time at the CTM? They are like chocolate, oatmeal bars I think. :)
A special thanks to: Rob, Laura, Kit, Joy, Mick for their emails this week. And as always, thanks to Mom, Dad, Spencer, Kelly, Becky, and Grandma for their weekly emails. I really love hearing from you all.
I´m really excited for you Mick! Start preparing now and study Preach My Gospel!
URGENT: My inbox is at 92% and only to get more full! I need one of my loving family members to go in to my inbox and delete all the forwards, mission journals, doubled emails (sometimes people sent it twice), etc. I would be most grateful if someone could do this for me. My email is rellis7@myldsmail.net and my password is missionary14. Thanks! Whoever does it, it would be nice to start printing off the emails to have a hard copy of them after my mission. (But that´s just extra for right now) The main crisis is cleaning out the inbox. I would do it, but I only have an hour a week, and there isn´t enough time to clean it out and read emails, send my relatorio, and send emails to y´all. Note: You have to delete the email and then purge it to get it out of my inbox. Thanks!
Love, Sister Ellis III

Dec 10

Hey fam!
I am so sorry to hear about Nolan. I will be praying for him, Joy and Darrell. He must be huge now to be able to ride a bike! They are all growing up way too fast!!!
OK, so question: Did you all write in your journals in English or in your mission language? I pray some of you will answer me since there´s been a famine of sibling emails of late. What is up with y´all? Don´t have time for your favorite redhead?! Joy and Darrell have an excuse, but as for the rest of you…
Anyways, aside from lack of support and love from my siblings whom I love dearly, life is going well. We are waiting to hear the transfer! I am so anxious!!! I know I´m staying here, but I think Sister Bulhões is going to be transferred. I am staying here because I am accompanying for the stake choir here and Pres. Milder promised the conductor I´d be here through the holidays.
I´ll write you a letter, Dad with all my convert´s names. Sorry I don´t really write those anymore. There is a lot of work going on and not enough time to tell about everything! Thanks for the info of marinha´s daughter. I haven´t received their address or the other Pasqualin who lives here. Could you email that to me, Dad? Thanks.
The work continues on. We have a lot more to do esp. with it being Christmas. What all is everyone doing for Christmas? Who´s going where?
Anyways, I love you all lots. Thanks for being such a wonderful family.
Spencer—what do you want to do for the Christmas call? I´d love to hear your voice if Mom and Dad could do a conference call, but what do you think? My call can only be 40 minutes (as outlined in the Missionary Manual). Mom and Dad – what do you think?
Love, Sister Ellis
P.S. We visited a recent convert whose daughter died this week. She was engaged and the fiance was in coma crying out for her in the hospital, but she died on impact (it was a car accident). We sang a lot of hymns and it really brought the spirit. Lots of family came from SP and Brasilia to support her and we got all their addresses to send the missionaries to their houses!! Yea!! The Lord works in mysterious ways. Funny note: her nephew that we´re teaching has a crush on me and always asks questions about missionaries dating and getting married, etc. HAHAHA! We have to find him a girlfriend in the church PRONTO!! 
P.P.S. IMPORTANT NOTE!!
Please do not send any forwards to this address. I love you all and am grateful you want to share funny things with me, but this email is already filing up ridiculously fast so please, exclude this email from forward lists. Thanks!

Dec 3

Hello, Marvelous family!!!
So, things are going very well here in paradise. Guess what, Spence? I do know both of those friends of your trainer. Elder Winegar is my district leader and Elder Perry I practiced a lot with in our trainings this last zone conference. I´ll tell them E. Prince said hi the next time I see them and I´m sure they will say hi back. 
First, the sad news. My camera (from sending those pics at the beginning of the mission) got 2 viruses on the memory card. Now, I can´t print off any pictures at the print place and can´t save them onto a cd. Any bright ideas of what I could do?
Other than that, life is good. Did I tell yáll that I take cold showers every morning and night? Truly, Southwestern was inspired!!  Hahaha!
Dad—I asked Pres. Milder about giving English lessons cus some people were asking about it but he said that you said it wasn´t a good idea. May I know your reasoning behind that? I just thought it´d help people get accustomed to the church through a different way and help strengthen the members more.
I forgot to include in last weeks email: THANK YOU so much for everyone´s help with the farewell open house. I really appreciate everyone being there and all my sister´s and sister-in-law´s help with the food, etc. You are so wonderful!
Becky—I have not received your package yet. I have a hunch it already arrived, but the office elders have something against us. They say nothing´s there when it really is. I´ll let you know when I finally get it. I´ll probably get it next week at possible zone conference and definite transfer. Thanks for thinking of me!
Mick—I´m so excited for you!!! When do you repor t to the mtc? Send me an email when you get a chance. I miss hearing from you, cuz!
I have a question: How do I get toned arms? Kev, Nat, I need your help! I don´t have any weights or anything. I only have 3 times a week in which I use an elastic band to do arm exercises. Any ideas of what I could do in that 30 minutes to get rid of these relief society arms? Thanks!
Grandma—I didn´t know you played the organ! How cool is that?!! Joy has that calling now in her ward. I know she´d appreciate any advice you could give. I´m sure the ward would appreciate your help in playing and inviting the Spirit in the meetings again. And now, it wouldn´t be so difficult for you because all the meetings are together on Sunday! Que coisa boa! What a blessing, huh?!
So…life is good. I love my companion and all the members and investigators. Monday night we did a family night with the family of Irmão Rudolfo. He´s the first counselor in the stake presidency and apparently Dad and Mom ate there one time when they were here in Cuiabá. Their family is so sweet. They have two twin boys of 14 years and a younger boy of 12 years. Unfortunately, they don´t really get along that well as friends and brothers. We were inspired to give the lesson on service. We made brownies with them and had scriptures in all the ingredients for them to find and look up and say what they understood about service. At the end, they all made lists of what they would do this week to show love for each family member through service. Irmã Ana was really grateful for the lesson.  I also shared with them how Mom used to always sing Love At Home whenever we were fighting! Then, I told how we always gave each other a hug and a kiss after family prayer at night and said I love you. She liked that too and they started it that night! Hopefully, the things we shared with them will help unite their family more. They are such great young men and I know they are going to be great leaders in the church. But, before they can serve others, they just need to learn to serve their family.
I love the opportunity to be here giving all my time and energy to strengthening families and testimonies of Jesus Christ. Every day is an opportunity to draw closer to our Savior, if we but organize our time by putting the things of the Lord first. I love you all so very much!
Love, Sister Ellis III

P.S. I never heard what everyone was for Halloween! I expect an email from all the siblings telling me what their kids were and in Darrell´s case, what he was for Halloween too. I know you all get on the internet to check the family web site all the time, so don´t try the excuse of no time! :) Love ya!
Plus, what did everyone do for Thanksgiving? I only heard about Mom and Dad´s. I´m still waiting...:)

Thanksgiving

Since Thanksgiving is tomorrow (I think), this email is dedicated to thank all my wonderful family members individually. Thank you for all your support, prayers, emails, and love. I really am so blessed to have such a great family! Scroll down to find your name. And just like Patriarchal Blessings, you shouldn´t compare lengths of others or content of others lists with your own. ;) They are all personalized.

What is everyone doing for Thanksgiving? Is everyone getting together? Are you doing tournaments?

This week was great. I don´t really have much time to write more because these gratitude lists took up almost two hours! But, I played for Stake Conference this weekend. Everyone is praying I won´t be transferred for a long time! One man said I had to serve the whole mission here and then get married and live here after the mission! Hahaha! How sweet. It´s nice to feel loved. The playing went well and I´m grateful I can basically manage playing any hymn in the hymnbook even without ever seeing some of these Brazilian ones. I know I will be here at least til the transfer after Christmas because the conductor of the stake choir asked Pres. Milder! Well, that´s it for now. I love you all very much! (More than any words can describe).

Happy Thanksgiving! Love, Sister Ellis III

Grandma Turtle—I am grateful for your emails every week that bring a smile to my lips as I read your descriptions of everything happening there. I can actually picture myself there in Ontario with you!
I am grateful for your support and encouragement.
I am grateful for all the fun memories we have together (visits, birthdays, tea parties, etc).
I am grateful we got to see each other again before I came on the mission. We still have many more birthdays to celebrate together after, ok?
I am grateful you raised my mom with good principles.
I am grateful you are my grandma!

Mom—I am grateful for your love that hás blessed my life all these twenty-one years.
I am grateful for your fun-loving laugh that makes me happy every time I hear it.
I am grateful for your sense of humor and all the fun we have shared.
I am grateful for your considerate and generous nature. You are always willing to put your needs behind the needs of others. What an example of service!
I am grateful for your understanding nature and that I can always open up to you.
I am grateful for your friendship. I am grateful for the wisdom you share with me in times of plenty and famine. 
I am grateful for your patience and perseverance in making me practice piano over the years.
I am grateful for your support and encouragement in all I do (no matter what the odds).
I am grateful for your testimony and how it strengthens my own.
I am grateful you taught me to live the gospel from infancy—to pay tithing, study scriptures, pray, keep the Sabbath Day holy, etc.
I am grateful you are my mother!

Dad—I am grateful for your loving wisdom that has guided me throughout my life.
I am grateful for your love of life and for teaching me to love it too.
I am grateful for your love of the gospel and teaching me to live it.
I am grateful for your trust and teaching me how to be independent.
I am grateful for your help with my affairs while I´m serving the Lord.
I am grateful you taught me how to work.
I am grateful for your patience when I keep making mistakes.
I am grateful for the insights and scriptures you share every letter.
I am grateful you taught me to live the gospel from infancy—to pay tithing, study scriptures, pray, keep the Sabbath Day holy, etc.
I am grateful for the love and respect you show for Mom and how you always taught us to do the same.
I am grateful you are my father!
(Just so you know, I got your mission pouch letter written on Nov 7th on Nov 21st. Thanks for the letters!)

Joy—I am grateful for your sisterly advice that blesses my life.
I am grateful for your fun-loving nature.
I am grateful for your beautiful family and the happiness they give me.
I am grateful for your generosity in letting me stay with you for Thaksgiving last year.
I am grateful for your great sense of humor!
I am grateful for your thoughtfulness in writing me and sending goodies to brighten up my day! (I think it takes roughly 2 weeks—maybe more b/c my birthday package arrived the week after my birthday. Just so you know for future reference…;)).
I am grateful to be sister to she-who-creates-such-great-indian-names. 
I am grateful for your creativity in raising such stalwart young men. (It is giving me great ideas for my future family).
I am grateful for your never-ending patience in raising such wonderful future missionaries and Priesthood holders! You are doing such a great work!
I am grateful for your courage to try new things (learning to play the organ) in order to serve the Lord.
I am grateful you are my sister!

Darrell—I am grateful for your fun sense of humor that keeps me laughing.
I am grateful for your love for my sister. I am grateful you waited so patiently for her to realize you were the one for her! Our family wouldn´t be the same without you!
I am grateful for the dad you are to my nephews.
I am grateful for your patience and generosity towards me.
I am grateful that you help me develop patience with all your teasing! 
I am grateful you are my brother-in-law!

Kit—I am grateful for your love of music that has blessed my life.
I am grateful for all your help in counseling me with my dramatic social life (before the mission, of course).
I am grateful for your help in listening to me sing so I can improve.
I am grateful for your selfless nature in caring for everyone around you.
I am grateful for your friendship.
I am grateful for the mother you´re being to your girls. You are such an example to me!
I am grateful for the CDs and case you gave me for my mission.
I am grateful for all the fun times we had hanging out while I was at BYU.
I am grateful we got to sing together in my ward (even though we didn´t use the ´Sound of Music´motif. ).
I am grateful you are my sister!

Kevin—I am grateful for your fun sense of humor.
I am grateful for your voice that helps invite the Spirit.
I am grateful for your love for my sister.
I am grateful for your patience with her. ;)
I am grateful for the time we had to spend together when I was at BYU (remember sledding with Ryn?!)
I am grateful you are my brother-in-law!

Matt—I am grateful for your funny jokes and songs that always crack me up!
I am grateful fro your strong testimony that has taught me so much.
I am grateful for your good work ethic and how that has helped me, learning from your example.
I am grateful for your beautiful family and the dad you are.
I am grateful for your kindness in always letting me stay with you while passing through Dallas.
I am grateful for your kindness in playing those speed card games with me (even though it was late and I was just too fast for my old brother! ;)). (just kidding)
I am grateful for your emails and advice from your mission experiences.
I am grateful you are my brother!

Natalie—I am grateful for your beautiful and contagious laugh.
I am grateful for your fun-loving nature in playing and laughing with me.
I am grateful for your consideration in always treating me like a grown-up.
I am grateful for the mother you are to my nephews.
I am grateful for your support to my brother and that you fell I love with him.
I am grateful for your friendship. (Remember when we ate mint-chocolate chip ice cream out of the carton in your closet that summer you were home from college?)
I am grateful for your understanding nature—always empathizing with me and helping me see both sides of the coin.
I am grateful for all our talks—sharing ideas, thoughts, testimonies, experiences, etc.
I am grateful you are my sister-in-law!

Mark—I am grateful for your great sense of humor—always helping me laugh even if I was crying before!
I am grateful for your loving care as my older brother--always being concerned for my safety when driving, etc.
I am grateful for all the good memories we have together (from pictures with suction-cup goggles to shuffleboard on the cruise and money pictures in Iowa).
I am grateful for your creativity in helping Spencer and I have good childhood memories with the whole ´Master´ thing—better to be brainwashed into being your servant than fight, right? 
I am grateful for your hospitality in letting us stay with yáll after selling books.
I am grateful you are my brother!

Aup—I am grateful for your thoughtfulness in helping with my blog.
I am grateful for your kindness in letting us stay with you after selling books (always cooking gourmet meals, etc).
I am grateful for your love and support for my brother.
I am grateful he found such a loving, kind, patient, beautiful woman to be his eternal companion!
I am grateful you´re helping ´civilize´ Mark through Pride and Prejudice, etc. 
I am grateful you are starting your family! Be careful and send me pictures when you finally start to get a belly!
I am grateful for your help with my blog. I´m excited to see it in a year and a half.
I am grateful you are my sister-in-law!

John—I am grateful for your concern for me as your little sister.
I am grateful you always put up with me when I passed through Houston.
I am grateful for the dad you are to my nieces and nephew—raising them with gospel principles and correct morals.
I am grateful you always make time to play games with me.
I am grateful for your example of patience and longsuffering.
I am grateful you are my brother!
(Don´t forget to work hard, but play hard too!) ;)

Laura—I am grateful for your loving kindness towards everyone.
I am grateful for your hospitality every time I come to Houston.
I am grateful for your example of Christ-like love to all.
I am grateful for your constant support and encouragement you give to John.
I am grateful for your patience and care you are giving to the house in Houston—even when it is ridiculously big and old. (Remember the experience of the water falling through the ceiling in the living room?!!)
I am grateful for the sweet mother you are to my nieces and nephew.
I am grateful for the missionary you are continuing to be with Celeste.
I am grateful for your ability to see the best in others.
I am grateful that you inspire me to be better than I am.
I am grateful for your patience in hearing me blab all my stories, concerns, etc. to you.
I am grateful you are my sister-in-law!

Rob—I am grateful for your friendship and encouragement.
I am grateful to be the sister of the Great DalMuti.
I am grateful for every laugh we share.
I am grateful for your example of unwavering faith and exact obedience.
I am grateful for the rose colored glasses you wear—always seeing me as the person I can become rather than the person I am.
I am grateful you are working so hard at Harvard. You always have set an example of academic excellence for me.
I am grateful for the memories we made living in Brazil together.
I am grateful for all your help and advice while selling books. I really wouldn´t have made it through 3 summers without you!
I am grateful you always looked out for me (whether it was driving long distances late at night, or offering your help in chaperoning my dates). 
I am grateful you are my brother!

Christa—I am grateful for all the fun times we have shared (selling books, family vacations, BYU game nights at your place, etc.).
I am grateful for all your advice.
I am grateful for your excitement in everything you do!
I am grateful for your support and love for Rob.
I am grateful you and Rob were there for me during my freshman year at BYU.
I am grateful for the fun we have whenever we are together.
I am grateful you are my sister-in-law!

Spencer—I am grateful for your love and support.
I am grateful we got to be ´roommates´ selling books this summer.
I am grateful for your patience with me (even when it´s difficult)! 
I am grateful for your example of unwavering faith.
I am grateful for your example of humility.
I am grateful we are both serving missions at the same time!
I am grateful for our friendship and talks about ´love life´ etc.
I am grateful you are my brother!

Emily—I am grateful for your cute sense of humor that always keeps me laughing!
I am grateful we got to be roommates on the cruise.
I am grateful for your testimony that strengthens mine.
I am grateful for the woman you are becoming.
I am grateful for your kindness in always sharing with me when I come to visit.
I am grateful you are taking such good care of Mom and Dad.
I am grateful for your help with my email while I´m on my mission.
I am grateful for the cute drawing you sent me and for the letters you have sent.
I am grateful you are my sister!

Becky—I am grateful for your friendship and support.
I am grateful for the fun we had these last 2 years watching chick flicks, talking about boys, decorating your house, cheering for Mick, etc.
I am grateful for your kindness in always inviting me to family activities, dinners, etc.
I am grateful for your example of unwavering faith and optimism.
I am grateful for your sweet smile and fun-loving personality.
I am grateful you were always willing to play a game with me even when no one else wanted to! 
I am grateful for the wonderful example you are to me of a supportive wife and mother.
I am grateful for all your packages you send that brighten up my mission even more!
I am grateful you are my aunt!

Kelly—I am grateful for your words of wisdom you are always willing to give. 
I am grateful for your ability to help me laugh at every situation.
I am grateful for all the rides you gave me at BYU.
I am grateful for your careful watch over me while I was away from Mom and Dad! ;)
I am grateful for all the invites to family functions with Tribe #5.
I am grateful for your example of service.
I am grateful for the support you are to Aunt Becky.
I am grateful you are my uncle!

Clay—I am grateful for your patience with my loud laugh, talkative nature, and all the questions I ask! (even during a movie!)
I am grateful for all the cousin bonding time we had just the 2 of us partying it up while Kelly and Becky were gone! 
I am grateful for your sincerity and openness with me (when I nag you enough). ;)
I am grateful for your advice with all my boy issues over the last 2 years.
I am grateful for your desire to seek and obey the will of the Lord.
I am grateful you sent me an email during my mission (since it´s true I never wrote one to you). You are truly magnanimous!
I am grateful for your example of working and studying hard. Keep it up!
I am grateful you are my cousin! I don´t know how I got so lucky!

OI!

Hello family--
So...I don´t really know where to start. There is so much to tell!! My birthday was very fun. Thank you for all your emails, well wishes, packages, etc. I have such a loving family! I really don´t know how I got so blessed.
My District Leader and his companion made me cake and the other district leader (who has meetings the same time in the same chapel) made me pasteis. It was very nice. That was the PDay we played soccer and volleyball with the elders. :)
I woke up on my birthday and Sister Bulhões gave me a letter she wrote and earrings. Then we went to visit an investigator to finish teaching the 2nd lesson. He ended up telling us he was gay! Hahaha! I will never forget this birthday, that´s for sure! After that slight damper, we went home and I made pancakes. Then I opened my presents from Mom, Dad, Spencer, and Em. We enjoyed pancakes with peanut butter and nutella (it just doesn´t get any better). I made my twinkie cake following the instructions Becky gave! :) Our lunch appointment sang to me and had made flan (not knowing it was my birthday). That night, we taught some of our sweet recent converts and then they threw a party for me. It was so sweet. They don´t really have that much money--not even enough to get the bus from work everyday. Yet, they still bought two cakes and two refrigerantes for my birthday. They are so sweet. I´m excited for Mom and Dad to meet them at the end of my mission. Then we went to teach a menos ativo family. They threw another party for me. She wasn´t ready when we arrived and so she locked us out until she lit some matches and stuck them in the cake! Hahaha! They made this really good lanche with chicken and then we ate chocolate cake (after watching Together Forever and teaching about eternal families of course--we are setting goals with them to go to the temple). It was a wonderful day! I felt very loved! :)
In other news--I don´t know if I ever told you all, but in my group that arrived at the CTM together, there was an elder with the first name Dax. Here that, John and Laura?
Also, I don´t know if I mentioned it, but I walk around with my umbrella every day here! Hahaha!!! Not because it´s raining, but because the sun here is so hot, I can feel it giving me cancer! My companion has started following my example too. I still wear sunscreen too. Pretty intense, huh? I always thought it was romantic watching those old movies with the ladies with parasoles and now on my mission I walk around with one! How funny is that?
Sunday we had a huge miracle!! There was no water in the chapel. The ward mission leader informed us of that fact 1 hour before our baptism! So, we started filling up buckets of water with the filtered water drinking fountain. We took a break to take the Sacrament and then went at it again! When the drinking fountains ran out, we started carrying the buckets to and from a neighboring restaurant. It was quite the work out. Yet, the font was still not filling up quickly. Then, the released and newly called YM President both came running to help! They were answers to our prayers! They called the YM to help too. They grabbed trash cans and were using everything to fill the font in time. It truly was a miracle. The funny part of it all was that they had asked me before the meeting to lead the music. Then, they called my name in the meeting and I wasn´t there (because I was filling up the font). The best part of all was that President Milder (my mission president) was there! Hahaha! At least I was doing the Lord´s work.
Life is good. I´m learning a lot. Yesterday was our zone conference. I was humbled a lot. This morning I was humbled even more. What a blessing I´m here serving a mission. I think my future husband and children will be very grateful I served. I read in Hel 10 about Nephi. He was such a great example! I really need to start focusing my thoughts more on the work. I don´t want to miss any bit of revelation from the Lord that I could receive while meditating. There were other things too that I was humbled with, but I don´t want to go about airing my dirty laundry in front of all you. I´ll just suffice it to say I´m repenting and changing my heart for the better. I am doing my best to serve the Lord with my all. Thank you for your support and prayers. I am working hard to make you all proud. :)
Joy--Thanks for the package. I loved the little bag of makeup. That is so fun you are the ward organist! I LOVE ORGAN!! It is way better than piano. My advice is to not think of it like the piano. It is completely different. You don´t have the pedal to connect things, you have to do the fingering in such a way that there are no breaks. I would call Sister Flake if I were you. It is too hard for me to try to teach you to play organ via email. But, she helped me get started and I think she could help you too. Good luck! Let me know how it goes! I know you will do awesome!
Love, Sister Ellis III
P.S. Emily--could you pass along the message to Jenny Mobley that the address I left on facebook is my address and it is reliable? Thanks!

Nov 12

HELLO!!!
How is everything with yáll? Everything´s great here. We finally did something fun today on pday. We played soccer and volleyball with the elders. It was fun—I actually made a goal left footed! As we were finishing playing, it started raining cats and dogs! The streets were rivers!! It was insane! But I love it when it rains here because then it´s not so hot for at least a couple hours.

Sunday, I played in Sacrament meeting. Normally the lady uses the recordings on the electronic piano but these songs weren´t recorded. I had never seen most of them before, but it went surprisingly well. Thank heavens! The funny part was that the sacrament hymn was to the tune of Drink to me only….with thine eyes… Sound familiar, Klein Choir alumni?!! I wanted to crack up laughing! If only Prad were here…(smile).

We taught a family way out in the boondogs this week. We have to take 2 buses to get there and it is in the middle of the mato. None of the houses have numbers. It´s pretty funny. The family loaded us down with fruit and fruit pulp to make juice with. It was great!!! We took a bunch of mangos too and made mousse de mango. Mmm…muito gostoso! One of the fruits is called jaca and it is a huge green spiny oval. It looks like something out of star wars. I didn´t really like it, but it was a fun experience taking pictures and dissecting it. Brazil has so many fruits it´s incredible! Not even my Brazilian companion knows them all!

Mom—Thanks for the recipies. I´m excited to make pancakes for my companion! Thanks also for the packages! My companion and I loved the popcorn and she wanted the recipe of that too. My companion´s name is Sister Bulhões.

Em—I loved your drawing of the little Japonese Indian saying Happy Thanksgiving!! HAHAH! It was so cute!! Thanks

Clay—It´s like you´re back from the dead!! Thanks so much for writing me, cuz! I love you so much! Have you been having fun in Hawaii? Let me know when you hear from BYU business, k? I´ll celebrate down here while you´re celebrating up there.

Aup—I remembered the password to the blog. _____. At least I think it is…Thanks for doing all that.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Ethan and Grandma Turtle and Suzanna!! I love you all so much! Did Ethan have a party? Grandma—I can´t believe you´re 92! That´s so awesome!! Remember when we had a joint birthday party a couple years ago in Cali? That was fun. We have so many fun memories! Thank you for all your continuous emails and support. I couldn´t have asked for a more loving Grandma! Tell all the California clan hi from me and pass along my email to Billy, would you (if you get a chance)? I´d love to hear from him. Thanks!

So…I am kinda embarrassed because I don´t have any pictures of my family. (It wasn´t on the list of things to bring!) Everyone always asks and I have to hang my head. Could someone snail mail me some pictures—the one from California with the blue shirts and maybe some when I had long hair? Everyone keeps nagging me about it. I would be very appreciative.

Becky—Thanks for the package! You are so sweet! My companion and I are going to gain so much weight this week!!! I´ll follow the instructions for my cake and take a picture for you. How are you feeling? What´s the latest from the doctors? Tell Mick I love him! Let me know when he gets his mission call!!!

If anyone is feeling a desire to send me peanut butter, that would be very welcome. My supply is running low and I can´t buy it here. Peanut butter is to me like nutella is to Emily. Hahaha!

Does anyone know how to get me Abby´s mailing address? I´m not allowed to email her, but she emailed me and I´d like to keep up the correspondence.

Last night I started to get really sick. My throat was really swollen and my nose was running like crazy. It hurt to talk. Finally, I took medicine when I got home, but in the night I started to get a fever. I was really weak and dizzy when I woke up this morning. I said a prayer that I could have the strength to get better. I don´t have time to get sick. There are so many elect people waiting to hear this message! I got a blessing from my district leader (after sleeping a couple more hours). I´m feeling a little better now—better enough to play soccer and volleyball at least! (And teach of course) Heavenly Father is so sweet to me. I know He is aware of each of us in our own lives. He hears and answers prayers—even those of a little missionary in the middle of nowhere south America! What a blessing!!

Love, Sister Ellis III

P.S. We finally got a hold of a cd player to borrow from the ward. It was so fun listening to the cds you made, Kit. Thanks!

Nov 5

Report for this week:
So things are going better. My companion and I are having a lot of fun! Thank you for all your advice. I really do need to tough up and be submissive. God is giving me this time to use to learn patience and humility. What a blessing! I really do have so much to improve. I never knew how severely lacking I was in relation to Christ-like attributes til I came on a mission! What a blessing!
We are being blessed greatly. We had a miracle baptism this week. We visited a recent convert and ended up teaching the first lesson to her sister too. We never even knew about this sister til we went there. She was baptized this Sunday! It was so amazing to see how the Lord had been preparing her way before we got there. She stopped drinking 4 months ago and so was perfectly ready to accept everything! It was awesome! Now we are teaching her friend who came to her baptism. She lives ridiculously far away in the wilderness, but it´s worth it! We are going to set her baptism tomorrow and hopefully baptize her this Sunday! This truly is the Lord´s work. I´m so grateful to be a part of it! I love working with families and helping them find eternal happiness through the gospel. There are a lot of members in our ward that are the only ones in their family. So, we have the great privilege to start working with them and try to baptize them! This is what the Lord wants---eternal families!
I got my haircut today. It´s so nice to not have hair on my neck! My hair had grown out a lot in 2 months! I totally thought of Nat—once you go short, you´ll never go back! Haha! I´m still planning on growing it out once I get home to have long hair for my wedding though.
So…Mom and Dad and Em are going to pick me up, right? And can Dad me-desobrigar? Because, I´m planning on staying with yáll in Sao Paulo before going back to the States so it´ll be a while before I would see the stake pres. Is that allowed, Dad?
When I get home, I´m going to need some tooth work again. It is so frustrating to always have graying, uneven teeth. Oh well, at least I don´t have to look at myself during the day, right? Just pray for the poor people of Brazil—they´re the ones that have to see my nasty gray teeth! One of the elders at the CTM asked if my front teeth were fake because they were gray! Aww.
So, that´s pretty cool Spencer gets to have devotionals with apostles. Apparently Elder Scott did a devotional at the CTM too, but I was already in the field.
Another thing that´s kinda sad here is that the ward is not very united. Most of the members don´t like the bishop and harbor bad feelings against him. It´s so sad! It breaks my heart to see these things happening in the church! We´re doing our best to fortify the members and unify them. We got the list from the secretary—there are 600+ members with 450 less active! Wooeee! We have our work cut out for us! We are going to put together a noite familiar calendar today for each neighborhood. That way the members aren´t traveling long distances to be together during the week.
For Mick—I´m going to vote BRAZIL!!!!
Thank you so much for all your emails etc. I love you all very much! I was cracking up laughing reading some of yall[s advice!! Thanks
Love, Rae
Sister Ellis III
P.S. What does CM stand for in Spencer´s emails?

Oct 22

This is going to be quick b/c I only have 8 minutes! I wanted to thank everyone for all their letters, packages, emails, etc. I am so blessed to have a family like this!
Warren—Happy Birthday coming up! Thanks for your letter!
Jared—Happy late Birthday! I was thinking about you. I hope you had fun. How´d you like your baptism? Thanks for the letter!
Joy—Thanks for the nail polish! I´m wearing it right now!
Grandma—Thank you so much for your email. I cried the whole time! I love you so much. I don´t know how I got so blessed to have you for my grandma. Keep going strong! You are such an example to me. I am going to live each day to its fullest.
Dad—I did know Chelsea. She was in my freshman ward at BYU. Small world!
Becky—Thank you soooooooooo much for the PB!! My world is now a brighter place because I have pb. Tell Laura and Chet congrats. I´m so happy for you all!
So, Laura was baptized this Sunday. It was wonderful! My first baptism! Crazy! We have a lot of work to do here still esp. since the other duple just got transferred. Fun stuff! I´m really excited. Sorry there´s not more time to say more. Other than, in Sacrament meeting a little boy the bishops son gave a talk and quoted you (Dad) in it. It was really funny.
Love, Rae

HELLO

This week I followed the example of my trainer and wrote down in my planner everything that happened in the week that I wanted to share. We´ll see if I can fit everything in the time I have!
We had a wonderful girl we were teaching and preparing for baptism, but Satan snatched her away through the aid of her sister who was not a good support. It was really sad for me because she was so excited when we taught her. Now she doesn´t even answer the phone when we call. Anyways, it was depressing and I began to think that maybe our greatest work here in this area is to work with the members and strengthen them. Because if the ward isn´t strong, whoever we baptize isn´t going to stay strong. The problem is, I don´t really know how to reactivate someone. I´m just going to rely on the Lord and trust him b;c He knows exactly what they need. We are preparing some ideas to integrate the members and have a message, game, and food every week. ?Hopefully this will help them become better friends.
Where exactly do the pasqualin primos live? Didn´t mom say they lived here in Cuiabá? How my mission works is there are only 2 areas open to sisters. Those areas are only in the state of Mato Grosso. So, I will get to know these 2 areas really well in a year and a half!
I don´t have any more money for food as of today so I am going to have to exchange the money I brought from my account to eat. The mesada is really little here. I don´t know how I´m going to afford for shampoo, deoderant, tooth paste, etc. when I can´t even afford food! We created a report for the mission president and are going to give it to him to see if he will raise our mesada. I really haven´t been buying anything superfluous (not cookies, nothing!). Thanks be to SW for teaching me to economize! We´ll see how that goes because we have zone conference tomorrow. I´m kinda nervous because my mission president is really intimidating.
Good news is that since I´ve arrived, my companion and I have doubled our lessons taught with members--despite the fact that we haven´t met them all yet! Que coisa boa!
I need help my rm relatives! How do you go about helping inactives and recent converts? Most importantly, how do you get people to honor their compromissos? We invited 10 people to church last sunday and only one was there! I´m so tired of molhe pesquisadores! Oh well, we will just keep working to find the elect. Those who are prepared for this message will fulfill their promises. I´m sorry if I sound weird, but I´m already forgetting some words in english. I can only think in portuguese lots of the time!
We got the Liahona for this month and I was leafing through it and saw dad´s picture! He wrote an article on helping hte church in Brazil be mature. It was really good and I got a lot from it, so thanks dad!
Question--has there ever been a mission with sister missionaries in the office? They have elderly couples in the office right? Has there ever been a mission president who didn´t serve a full time mission?
Brazil is beautiful!! I really do love it here. Brazilians are hilarious! One funny thing, I think Buddy´s relative lives next door because I hear his bark every day! Or Did he escape from Grandma´s house? Haha!
I am working hard and giving the Lord my best. I do have a couple requests though. Tooth brushes, tooth paste, face wash, zit and wart cream, shampoo, deoderant, body spray etc. are all ridiculously expensive down here! Is there any way someone could be an angel and send me some? I didn´t bring a lot down here and I´m running out rapidly. I would just buy it with my own money, but like I said earlier, I don´t even have enough to eat. Help!
I love you all a lot! May God bless you! This Sunday, we are baptizing a 17 year old girl who is dating the son of the ward mission leader. She is awesome! She is very sharp and has a strong testimony. She has been attending seminary for the last 3 months and even goes when her boyfriend doesn´t. Now that´s dedication! We are going to sing a special musical number for her baptism and have the members bring food for it (it´ll be right after church). Her mom and brother are very strict catholics and wouldn´t even come to the family home evening we planned for them to break the ice a little. Yet, she continues strong.
Well, that´s all for now. Sorry but I am running out of time. Know that I love you all very much!! I wish I had time to write everything I want, but I don´t. Thank you for all your prayers, emails, etc.
Love, Sister Ellis III
P.S. Mom are you sending these on to my friends or no? Just wondering...They might not even want to get these in which case, that´s fine. Saves you time, right?

letters

I had an idea. Maybe you could start sending me letters through Dearelder.com. It doesn´t cost anything and it will get to me during the week. I only check email once a week. That way, I can read your news and gather my thoughts of what to write back before pday and my precious limited internet time! Brilliant, huh?! (smile)
Anyways, it´s just an idea. You just send it to my mission (Cuiaba). I live down the street from the mission office so that is where my mail is sent to. Tell Celeste please and all my friends because I can´t email them back if they email me.
Emily--when you get on my facebook, or on yours, message Jenny Mobley and tell her she is a slacker friend for not writing me once yet! (Say it in a nice way though) Tell her a love her and miss her and need to know if she´s engaged or what. If she is, a boy is a pretty poor excuse to come between our friendship.
Also, I need Abby´s address! Could someone please find it for me? Thank you!

PS

sorry for the lack of spiritually inspiring material in my emails. I just feel so rushed when I write that I don´t have time to think! One thing that impressed me at conference was obeying 100%. This is one of my goals, but I discovered that it is much more easily said than done. I really like this scripture. DC 130;20-21. Love, Rae!

Oct 8

Dear Family and Friends,
Thank you all for your emails of encouragement and advice. I am so blessed! Well…I´m going to try to start being a woman. I´m not going to lie, the mission is a lot harder than I expected. Yet, life continues onward. We were working with some investigators and they ended up not wanting our help anymore. That hit me really hard and I cried like I´ve never cried before. I never knew I could feel so sad. It broke my heart that they didn´t want to hear about the gospel of Jesus Christ! This is the only way for them to return to the Father in Heaven and they turned it away. Anyways, we set a lot of goals to really start serving and working with the members. We are about to bust loose in the work (I´ve got that sneaking sensation…) hahaha!
I don´t know if Mom and Dad are still in TX, but if they are, I would really appreciate it if they could find (somewhere in my garbage bags of clothes in Caitie´s closet or the Brazil closet) my light t shirts that I used selling books. It is ridiculously hot here! All my clothes basically are things I have to wear an under shirt with and layers simply do not work here.
Conference was amazing! Unfortunately, I didn´t get to see the first session on Saturday. Mom and Dad, could you print off the talks in English and mail them to me? I´d really appreciate it. The Liahona won´t come out for a long time and I would rather read them in English since I didn´t get to watch conference in English. There´s something about hearing the words of the prophet´s in their own voices… I would also appreciate it if you could print off Sister Dalton´s talk. I missed hers too. I loved the children´s choir! I thought it was the best choir I´ve ever heard at conference! I also loved hearing With Faith in Every Footstep. Could you also print off the words for me? Portuguese and English? Thanks!
Curses! There was so much I wanted to do and say to you all, but my time is coming to an end. Please know that I love you all sooooooo much! I can´t even put into words my love and admiration for every one of you.
Question: what should I eat? We don´t get much money and right now I´m living on crackers, cookies, apples, cereal, and whatever the members feed us. I don´t want to be unhealthy and gain weight! Does someone want to send me some granola bars? 
Just so you know, in all those pictures with the elders, we weren´t hugging or anything. Only once did an elder try to put his arm around me and I told him to not touch me. Hahaha!
By the way, I met Sister Leal at the CTM. (Her dad is mission president of a mission here). She said Dad told her to go on a mission and she thought and prayed a lot about it. Finally at conference, Dad gave the prayer and then she received her answer to go. She wanted me to tell you. Love you all!
Love, Sister Ellis III
P.S. What is the latest with my CDs and car selling etc?
P.P.S. Is there any way for you to hack into my blog? I don´t know if I remember my info. ---------- Thanks Aup for doing that!
P.P.S.S. Kit, I would love it if you could save my pictures! I´ll send more soon.

more pics

I just had this huge attachment ready and then it got cancelled! I was so sad!
Let me know who is going to be saving my pictures for me please.
Thanks! Love, Rae

Greetings from Cuiabá

Dear Family,
Hello! Well, I´m officially on my mission now. I arrived in Cuiabá yesterday. President Milder and his wife took me and another elder to a fish restaurant that had the best fish I´ve ever eaten! (And you all know how much I hate fish normally) I´m with my companion now. We live a block away from the mission office. Dad met her when he spoke at the CTM about 5 months ago. Her name is Sister Bolhões. She is short and extremely animated! I have never met someone so happy all the time. It´s kind of intimidating actually. She talks so much that I don´t really want to. Now I can empathize with my CTM companion with how much I must´ve talked! She´s really sweet though and always asking if she can help me in any way. Funny story: her brother, Diego Domingues served in Dallas and probably knows the Jones´. He is also teaching Spanish now at the MTC in Provo. Spencer should look for him and take a picture.
We live with 3 other sisters in an apartment that was probably built when dinosaurs still lived! I´m not allowed to say anything negative though, so I´ll stop myself right there. I asked the mission president when the last time was he inspected our apartment so hopefully he´ll get the hint.
I really miss the CTM. I miss my companion and all my friends. It´s really weird being away from them. It seems like I´ve know them for my whole life. It´s funny how experiences like this bond you with people.
I am very happy to be here though and to finally start working. I´m kinda worried. I hope I can be good enough. Everyone in the mission has known ´the daughter of Elder Ellis´ was coming to the mission for months now. I hate how that follows me everywhere! (But I still love you a lot, Dad).
I am so excited for Conference and to get to hear direction from our prophet! What a blessing it is to have someone that speaks for God in our day! We did street contacts last night and invited a lot of people to come to conference.
Thank you for all your prayers and emails. I love you all very much!
Love, Sister Ellis III
P.S. Here are all the pictures I´ve taken to date. Please save them on some kind of junk drive or CD for me someone. Thanks!

Sept 25

Dear Family,
Hello. Life is wonderful! I am on my last Pday. I can´t believe how fast this time has gone! I´ve been learning a lot and made it through a lot of ´growing pains´. J
We went to the São Paulo temple today. It was our second time in Portugues. We ended up being in the same session as Elder and Sister Newman (the missionary couple that is going to watch Emily while Mom and Dad are at conference). What a small world! I know them b/c they serve in a branch presidency here at the CTM.
I leave for the mission field on Tuesday!!! I´m so excited/nervous. So...we´re going to talk about something else.
I am going to conduct the choir Sunday night singing I Know that My Redeemer Lives. It´s a really pretty arrangement that is on na EFY CD. Hopefully that will go well. I´m also going to be playing the Brazilian national anthem and the opening and closing hymns for the fireside!
I want to share some notes I took from my branch president this last Sacrament meeting. He shared the story with Saul and the Amalekites. ´Obedience is better than sacrifice.´ --1 Sam 15:22. The first mile is the obligation for the good missionary. The second mile is the place of blessings for the excellent missionary. I decided I am going to work harder than I have every worked before (even selling books). The Lord deserves my very best! (more than Southwestern) J
Anyways, that´s about all for this week. I need to go get my last Hep A and B shot! L I hope everything is going well for y´all. I hope Mark had a good birthday and that the power gets turned back on soon in Houston. I´m happy everyone was safe from that storm.
May God bless you all!
--Sister Rachel Ellis
p.s. I hope Mom was able to get everything done with Spencer. I can´t believe he´s already in the MTC! Time flies! I was just remembering what a cute little boy he was. Remember with the gallon of milk and dad making him fold his arms for the prayer so he made sure his finger was on it?! HAHAHA!
p.p.s.
My mission address is:
Missão Brasil Cuiabá
Av. Hist. Rubens de Mendonça, 1731
Salas 8, 9, e 10 -- Bosque da Saúde
78050--000 --- Cuiabá --MT

Tudo bem?!

Greetings, family, from Brazil! This is the very first email sent out by Sister Rachel Ellis! You all, as the recipients of said email, should feel very privileged! :)
Wow! I don´t even know where to start. I am a sister missionary!! Isn´t that crazy? I guess I´ll start from the beginning. Kit kindly took me to the airport Tuesday. We were so early, in checking me in, we had enough time to go home, eat lunch, and grab my sweater that I´d left on the counter. I made some friends on my plane rides which wasn´t very conducive to sleeping, but oh well! In Dallas, I had no idea which gate to go to for my flight to Brazil because the monitors weren´t working. I heard a group of people speaking Portuguese and started walking with them b/c they were going to Brazil and knew where to go. It was very fun to speak Portuguese. We talked for a long time. Finally, other missionaries started arriving at the gate. It was weird to introduce myself as Sister Ellis rather than Rachel. J It was kinda awkward b/c no one knew what to say after asking what mission and where you´re from. I tried to fill the silence (surprise, surprise) by talking a lot. That didn´t seem to work so I tried to teach them Thumper. They didn´t seem to take to it very well b/c we didn´t even play one full round. Oh well! I tried!
We arrived in São Paulo at about 5 am. We made it through customs only to discover there was no one there to meet us. I, being the only one who spoke Portuguese, went to call the numbers church travel gave us. I had to buy a calling card. The funny thing was, out of 4 numbers, no one answered! Hahaha! We were a pretty big group too—about 20 missionaries (only 2 sisters). My companion and I were on our way to buy na international card and call the numbers in Utah, when finally the man who was supposed to pick us up arrived.
They took us to the CTM and gave us the basic information meetings and tours of the neighborhood and the CTM. They even took our pictures. How rude to do that right after na all night flight and with no opportunity to get cleaned up! J The best part was that Mom had brought over a huge shoe box full of cookies so that it was waiting for me when I arrived! There were about 4 layers of cookies. I´ve been sharing with the other missionaries so now I´m down to the last layer. They all love Mom. J Thanks so much! That was very thoughtful of you!
We met with the doctor to go over shot records and funny story: I forgot mine at home! Hahaha! I had taken them from my file Monday to check which shots I still needed and instead of packing them, I placed them back in my file! Oh dear! Luckily, I remembered that I had everything but my last Twinrix shot (Hepatitis A&B). The doctor´s wife said she´d take my word for it, but if I got sick, it was my own fault. So...do you think, John/Laura, you could send me my shot records? They are the yellow papers in my brown expanding file in my pink backpack in the closet behind Caitie´s dresser. (Did that make sense?) It´s no rush to send them. I will just need them in 18 months to get back into the USA. Thanks so much!
The CTM is pretty intense, but nothing a veteran of Southwestern can´t handle! ;) I love my companion. Sister Pinzon is from Ontario, CA. (Hear that Mom and Grandma?) She is very kind, calm, and sets a good example for me. She speaks Spanish fluently so she understands basically everything already.
Our district is OK. The elders are funny sometimes, but they don´t know when to stop. They also don´t know how to use their time wisely. Sister Pinzon and I went into a different room to do our Missionary Directed Study Time (MDST) b/c we couldn´t concentrate with them talking the whole time. I also don´t think they like me b/c I already speak Portuguese. I only want to help them, but they take my efforts as me trying to show off. It´s kind of frustrating. I don´t really know what else to do. My branch president said to just be patient with them b/c all the elders start out this way. He said to just continue to lead by example.
I might not be with them for much longer anyways. One of the secretaries at the CTM ´interviewed´ me to see if I could handle being moved into a Brazilian district. I would like it a lot! I´m fine staying the whole 9 weeks at the CTM like Dad (I think) wants me to. I would just like to feel like I´m using my time wisely. Right now, I have to sit in the basic grammar classes with the other missionaries and veg. The teachers don´t really want me to answer b/c the other missionaries need to learn. It is pretty frustrating. I would be fine even if I could sit outside the classroom and study Pregar Meu Evangelho (Preach My Gospel in Portuguese). I just can´t study with other noise going on. Dad, Mom, and Emily are coming to the CTM Devotional tonight so I will talk to them then. I´m so excited to see them!
This morning, we went to the Campinas temple. It was such a great experience! I was there with Mom, Dad, Spencer, and Emily when that temple was dedicated in 2002. It was great to be back. When we got back from the temple, I introduced my companion to pasteis (I had chicken, palm heart, and catupiry cheese). She loved them. We mailed letters and then came to email. Now, I need to go buy water bottles and then we are going to get some vitaminas. I love Brazil!!
Anyways, how are all of you? Sorry, that was very rude of me to not ask til the very end of this huge email. I hope Spencer made it safely to wherever he drove to. I hope Kit makes it safely to France traveling by herself with the two girls. Thanks, again, Kevin, for letting her stay. I really appreciate your sacrifice. It was so good to see everyone before I left. Thanks again for all coming down and doing so much for the open house. I have been blessed with such a wonderful family! Becky—are you still feeling OK? I felt impressed to put your name on the prayer list at the temple today. I´ll be praying for you too.
I´m sorry this is one of those massive emails. I wish I had time to write you all individually. I hope you know that. Time is short here though on a missionary schedule. I love you all so very much! May God bless you!
Love, Sister Rachel Ellis
P.S. If you ever want to send anything via snail mail in the next little bit use this address for me:
Sister Rachel Jane Ellis
Mailbox # 04 District 35B
Missão Brazil Cuiaba
Centro de Treinamento Missionário
Rua Padre Antônio D´Angelo, 121—Casa Verde
CEP 02516-040-São Paulo—SP
BRAZIL

Special note: Don´t send any packages after the 4th week to the CTM address. You can still keep sending normal mail here and they can forward it once I´m in the field. Otherwise, just use the mission address on my facebook profile. I´ll keep you all updated with how long I´ll be here at the CTM.

Week 2 in the Record Books!

And now another week has come and gone in the book field. It has been another week in paradise! Wisconsin really is beautiful! I am grateful to be out here and meeting so many wonderful people. Today was Fast Sunday. I got called and sustained (about 10 minutes after the Branch President asked me) to be the Primary Pianist! It was pretty funny! I am very happy to help build God's kingdom in whatever He wants. Hopefully my piano skills will be fine tuned as I have no extra time to practice. :)
After church, the elders came over and we roasted hot dogs and had smores with my host family. They are so awesome! I love them so much! I only pray that somehow, through this short time period, God will be able to soften their hearts and they can be introduced to the gospel. I want to do whatever I can to be an instrument in His hand in doing this. I pray I will be receptive to the promptings of the Spirit for new ideas of service to show my love for them.
In other news, some of you might not know, but I've pretty much moved on from Matt Moses as a romantic interest. I just thought you all should know. My new 'boyfriend' is Aaron Dickens. We met in my music theory class this last semester at BYU. He is so amazing! Don't worry, I will give you all the details you want (and more) on the cruise. He is at the MTC right now, learning Spanish for his mission in Baltimore, Maryland. I know I said I would never have a 'missionary', but I think our family has a way of being the exception to many of the standard mormon traditions regarding missions and romantic interests. ;)

And the summer begins!

Well, it was a miracle day today. I was able to organize all my stuff into storage, mission, and summer luggage. It didn't take me nearly as long as I expected!
John and Laura took me to this nice crepe place for lunch. In the evening, we played games at Sterling and Adrienne's house. Then John and I watched Better Off Dead. Classic. :)
I think the highlight of my day was receiving TWO letters from Aaron! Laura said I was in 7th Heaven. :) It was quite a task getting to read those letters, however, as John made me chase him around the house for them! What are older brothers for, right? ;)
Anyways, tomorrow I drive to Nashville. I am probably going to be tired as I'm not going to bed very early, so you all might be receiving phone calls! (Just to give you a heads up). It's going to be an exciting summer! Your prayers will be appreciated! :)
I am planning on delivering the week of August 10th. So, I should be back in Houston no later than the 20th. I will be speaking in the Spring Creek Ward (3pm) on Sunday the 24th and will be set apart that evening at 7pm. I fly out for Brazil on the 26th. I would love to see any and all of you who are able to come visit before I leave. This is your engraved invitation. :)

Mission Preparations

Hello, everyone! I am so happy! Mom and I just finished a very successful two hour shopping trip in which we bought:
2 pairs of comfortable dress shoes
2 pairs of comfortable sandles
a very nice variety of light-weight dresses, skirts, and tops
and my 3 piece luggage set!
It truly was a miracle! Heavenly Father is so good to me! Now all I have left to get are some tights, under shirts, and garments.
I am just rewatching my mission call opening video. How fun to get to relive that joyous day! Thanks so much, Kit, for doing that!
Tonight I have my temple recommend with my stake president and tomorrow at 6pm I will be going through the temple for the first time! How exciting!! What is even more wonderful is that Mom, Dad, Kit, Kevin, Becky, and Clay will all be there to share this experience with me. I truly am very blessed!

Mission Call

Where in the world is Rachel Ellis going to be called for her initial assignment as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints?! It's time for you all to guess where you think I'm going! Please comment to this post and write your guess (a specific mission, please, not a general country). Better hurry and guess because my mission call should be coming soon!

Post #1

Alright, I have decided to finally appease you all by posting something substantial. :) This is actually my first post on my blog because those first three sentences were written by Kit. Well...I don't really know what to say or how to conduct this little blog thing. I'm kind of an old-fashioned paper journal, email, telephone girl. This blog business is slightly over my head to be quite honest. Oh well. Anything to make the family happy, right? ;)
I've been house sitting for Kelly and Becky while they have been on a jeep off-roading trip in Moab. This morning I went to a choir service project helping build a house with Habitat for Humanity. It was really fun! Then, Joey and Nick Stocking came down and we played a few games and talked about this summer. We also recorded ourselves doing our approaches so we could see what Mrs. Jones sees. Anyways, life is good. I'm doing the finishing touches on Becky's book with all the letters from tribe #2. I am going to give it to her tomorrow for Easter.
Looking forward to having Mom and Dad and the rest of the Conference Crew up here! We are going to have some fun. Get ready to play games. As for the rest of you, I wish you could come up as well. At least it won't be too long til we see each other. The Alaska cruise is coming up quick!
Oh! I only have three more weeks til school gets out and then I have finals. Crazy, huh? Just for those of you who I haven't talked to in a while, I turned in my mission papers last Tuesday. Hopefully, I will get my call this next week or so, so I can open it with the family up here for Conference. I'm so excited to go on my mission! I've decided it is especially good because there are simply too many boys I'm interested in right now and I can't decide on one. Therefore, by the time I get back from my mission, most of them will be married off. This is a wonderful solution to my indecision because then I will already have had several of them taken out of the pot for me! That way, I can focus on the few that are still single and allow them the privilege of taking me out! ;) Hahaha! Won't it be so fun to finally see who I end up marrying?! Life is so funny!

Hello, World!

I'm a blogger. Nice to be here. Talk to you soon!