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
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
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?
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?
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
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!
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.
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.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
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
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!
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!
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