I can´t believe it´s already the end of February!!! CRAZY!! I have been on the mission already 6 months! I want to cry when I think of how fast this is going by. I still have so much to improve!
So...this week was a very interesting week. I had to face a lot of big, ugly monsters of my character. Unfortunately, I had been going through life letting these faults grow, without even realizing. Thankfully, the mission brings all those ugly, terrible characteristics to the surface very quickly. So...I´m working really hard to change. I´m really sorry for all the pain and grief I have caused all of you just being so proud, selfish, adn insensitive. Thank heavens I came on a mission!!! No promises I´m going to be perfect when I come home. Com certeza this is going to be a life long battle for me. But, I do promise I´m going to be a little better than I was before. Thank you for your continual support and prayers. I am so grateful.
Sorry this is going to be so short. I spent most of the time reading all the emails, blogs, etc. Thank you! I love hearing and seeing all the latest of my cute neices and nephews. Aup--I hope Tearisa starts eating better. I loved Mark´s commentaries. You are so funny, Mark. Business in the front and party in the back! ;) Nat--I hope you´re feeling better now and the boys too. I´m glad to hear you adn Matt had fun in Brazil. Is Abby home from the mission yet? I´m sure it´s getting close, huh?
I was wondering if there was any way someone could send me things for my converts--CDs of hymns, CTR rings, hymnals, things like that. There isn´t any thing here in Cuiabá. Also, my companion and I were thinking how great it would be to have access to those seminary videos (like the one of the man who walked outside the fence in Africa and got eaten by the crocodile). You know how people learn different ways...some visually, auditorally, etc. Well, I was wondering if anyone had access to those and could burn them on to a DVD for me. I was thinking Joy or Matt might have an idea o n how to get them since y´all have served as seminary teachers...;)
Well... that´s my time for now! HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Kev and Cameron! I hope you both have a lot of fun and have many more years of health and happiness!
Love, Sister Ellis III
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Feb 18
Dear Family,
Well...the Lord is definitely blessing the work here. This last week, we were able to go to the cartório and mark the civil marriage date of Mara and Gilson for March 14th. Then, they and their three boys (baptism age) will be baptized on the 15th. This process truly was a miracle! We marked their marriage and baptism a while ago to be exactly after Gilson got paid. With back to school expenses and medical check-ups (their 9 yr old is recovering from cancer), they didn´t have the 200 reais to get married. We told them to pray and try to borrow it. We did the same and received the idea to call the 2nd counselor in the Stake Presidency and explain the situation to him. He and his wife are in our ward and so sweet and giving. They ended up giving us the 200 reais and said Mara and Gilson didn´t even have to pay it back! Miracle #1.
We went to the cartório on Monday, but it turned out Gilson´s birth certificate wouldn´t be ready til Friday. So, we marked again for Friday morning. Sister Bulhões and I left the house early so we could be one of the first people in line when the cartório opened. It didn´t end up opening til an hour after we thought, but it was a blessing we were there early because a huge line grew behind us. We got in and got all the documents filled out, money paid, etc. within 40 minutes. Plus, the workers accepted my CTM temporary ID so I could be one of the two witnesses even though I didn´t have Brazilian documentation. Miracle #2.
So, now, we´re just praying for Miracle #3: to be there for the wedding and baptism of this amazingly beautiful family! (The transfer comes out a week before the wedding and baptism). I´ve already asked Pres. Milder about extending the transfer just a week or so, so we´ll see what happens.
We did a Family Night with them a couple nights ago and they loved it! We made a FHE chart for them (complete with moveable name cards) and helped teach them how FHE works. Gilson directed his first FHE and the two year old (Vinicius) gave the closing prayer. It was so beautiful hearing Mara help her son pray to Heavenly Father. I am so grateful to have this opportunity to see the progress of this beautiful family. What a tender mercy from Heavenly Father!
I taught them a few games (incl. Zim Bong that Spencer shared a couple emails ago). They had a blast so thanks, Spence!
Yesterday we had a meeting with Pres. Milder in which he shared what he learned at the last meeting with the Area Presidency. It was wonderful and yet again, I was instructed about all the things I need to change and improve personally and in the missionary work. Thanks, Dad. ;)
Mom--I got your cookies. Thanks! Pres. Milder took a tax of half of them, but Sister Bulhões and I shared the rest. Sister Milder wants the recipe. Could you send it to me? I don´t know how to get ahold of Sister Cavalcante, but I´ll try to call her brother and get her email or phone number for ya.
Emily--Did you receive the email from Jarrett? Have you replied yet? Thanks for the drawings. Now Sister Bulhões calls me ´mad scientist´ from time to time. ;) She thinks you are hilarious! What´s the latest with Mariana?
Aup--Thanks for adding me to the list. I´m excited to get your updates.
Joy--That´s hilarious that you got a Facebook! Hahaha! Thanks for adding me! ;)
Kit and Kev--I absolutely loved the pictures!! It looks like Ryn is in heaven with a new baby sister. Thanks for remembering me.
Love, Sister Ellis III
P.S. Funny Story--While we were waiting in line at the cartório, a man kept on walking by, staring at me. I wanted to go contact him, but by the time I thought of it, he walked around the corner. A couple minutes later, a car pulled up to the curb and motioned me over to the window. The guy was in the passenger seat and apologized for not having the courage to talk to me. Then he asked for my number! HAHAHAHA! It was absolutely hilarious!! He didn´t even tell me his name or ask for mine and still hasn´t called. Isn´t that funny? I couldn´t believe it--no make-up, missionary clothes, hairy legs, etc.
Well...the Lord is definitely blessing the work here. This last week, we were able to go to the cartório and mark the civil marriage date of Mara and Gilson for March 14th. Then, they and their three boys (baptism age) will be baptized on the 15th. This process truly was a miracle! We marked their marriage and baptism a while ago to be exactly after Gilson got paid. With back to school expenses and medical check-ups (their 9 yr old is recovering from cancer), they didn´t have the 200 reais to get married. We told them to pray and try to borrow it. We did the same and received the idea to call the 2nd counselor in the Stake Presidency and explain the situation to him. He and his wife are in our ward and so sweet and giving. They ended up giving us the 200 reais and said Mara and Gilson didn´t even have to pay it back! Miracle #1.
We went to the cartório on Monday, but it turned out Gilson´s birth certificate wouldn´t be ready til Friday. So, we marked again for Friday morning. Sister Bulhões and I left the house early so we could be one of the first people in line when the cartório opened. It didn´t end up opening til an hour after we thought, but it was a blessing we were there early because a huge line grew behind us. We got in and got all the documents filled out, money paid, etc. within 40 minutes. Plus, the workers accepted my CTM temporary ID so I could be one of the two witnesses even though I didn´t have Brazilian documentation. Miracle #2.
So, now, we´re just praying for Miracle #3: to be there for the wedding and baptism of this amazingly beautiful family! (The transfer comes out a week before the wedding and baptism). I´ve already asked Pres. Milder about extending the transfer just a week or so, so we´ll see what happens.
We did a Family Night with them a couple nights ago and they loved it! We made a FHE chart for them (complete with moveable name cards) and helped teach them how FHE works. Gilson directed his first FHE and the two year old (Vinicius) gave the closing prayer. It was so beautiful hearing Mara help her son pray to Heavenly Father. I am so grateful to have this opportunity to see the progress of this beautiful family. What a tender mercy from Heavenly Father!
I taught them a few games (incl. Zim Bong that Spencer shared a couple emails ago). They had a blast so thanks, Spence!
Yesterday we had a meeting with Pres. Milder in which he shared what he learned at the last meeting with the Area Presidency. It was wonderful and yet again, I was instructed about all the things I need to change and improve personally and in the missionary work. Thanks, Dad. ;)
Mom--I got your cookies. Thanks! Pres. Milder took a tax of half of them, but Sister Bulhões and I shared the rest. Sister Milder wants the recipe. Could you send it to me? I don´t know how to get ahold of Sister Cavalcante, but I´ll try to call her brother and get her email or phone number for ya.
Emily--Did you receive the email from Jarrett? Have you replied yet? Thanks for the drawings. Now Sister Bulhões calls me ´mad scientist´ from time to time. ;) She thinks you are hilarious! What´s the latest with Mariana?
Aup--Thanks for adding me to the list. I´m excited to get your updates.
Joy--That´s hilarious that you got a Facebook! Hahaha! Thanks for adding me! ;)
Kit and Kev--I absolutely loved the pictures!! It looks like Ryn is in heaven with a new baby sister. Thanks for remembering me.
Love, Sister Ellis III
P.S. Funny Story--While we were waiting in line at the cartório, a man kept on walking by, staring at me. I wanted to go contact him, but by the time I thought of it, he walked around the corner. A couple minutes later, a car pulled up to the curb and motioned me over to the window. The guy was in the passenger seat and apologized for not having the courage to talk to me. Then he asked for my number! HAHAHAHA! It was absolutely hilarious!! He didn´t even tell me his name or ask for mine and still hasn´t called. Isn´t that funny? I couldn´t believe it--no make-up, missionary clothes, hairy legs, etc.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
ps
I forgot to share with you my favorite scripture I discovered recently. Mormon 7:7
Also, Happy Birthday (late) to Jake! Could someone pass along the message? I don´t have his email address or mailing address. Thanks.
Also, if anyone ever chooses to send me anything again, what I would really like are CTR rings for my RC and CDs of hymns (preferably in Portuguese) because most people don´t know how to read music and don´t know the hymns well. Thanks!
Love, Sister Ellis III
P.P.S. Thanks, Kelly for the update. I love you both more than words can express and am praying for you all the time!! Please give Becky a HUGE hug and kiss from me! Tell her that I´m rooting for her! ;)
Also, Happy Birthday (late) to Jake! Could someone pass along the message? I don´t have his email address or mailing address. Thanks.
Also, if anyone ever chooses to send me anything again, what I would really like are CTR rings for my RC and CDs of hymns (preferably in Portuguese) because most people don´t know how to read music and don´t know the hymns well. Thanks!
Love, Sister Ellis III
P.P.S. Thanks, Kelly for the update. I love you both more than words can express and am praying for you all the time!! Please give Becky a HUGE hug and kiss from me! Tell her that I´m rooting for her! ;)
This week...
Well...Life is good here in Brazil. Thank you for all your prayers and advice. I love you all very much. I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family! I´m happy Eden made it safely. I´m looking forward to someone sending me those pictures soon. (hint, hint).
Just a quick experience. We are teaching this girl Yasmin who we met months ago. She never came to church and said her mom didn´t like the church at all. We ran into her again a couple weeks ago and then she showed up at Church with a friend! They came last week too and we got their number and taught both of them. Yasmin is very sweet and wants to be baptized. We are now just praying her mom will allow it. Yasmin gave us the number of a less active young woman who is her friend from school. We visited her yesterday and she said that she had prayed just the day before that we would come visit her so she could have the strength to go back to Church! I love being able to be the Lord´s servant and see miracle every day. What a blessing it is to work with the Lord in answering prayers!
Love, Sister Ellis III
Just a quick experience. We are teaching this girl Yasmin who we met months ago. She never came to church and said her mom didn´t like the church at all. We ran into her again a couple weeks ago and then she showed up at Church with a friend! They came last week too and we got their number and taught both of them. Yasmin is very sweet and wants to be baptized. We are now just praying her mom will allow it. Yasmin gave us the number of a less active young woman who is her friend from school. We visited her yesterday and she said that she had prayed just the day before that we would come visit her so she could have the strength to go back to Church! I love being able to be the Lord´s servant and see miracle every day. What a blessing it is to work with the Lord in answering prayers!
Love, Sister Ellis III
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
FEB 4th
Hello!
Well, just really quick, I loved the pictures of Téarisa and of Kit and Kevin! Kit—you definitely do not look like a whale and that was such a beautiful picture! All my companions just stared in awe. ;) I don´t know how I turned out the ugly duckling of the family, but at least I have beautiful siblings and nephews/nieces to show off to everyone! Joy—That´s pretty awesome about your half marathon. My friends, Sister Reynolds and I are going to do that when we get home too. You really are my inspiration—thinking of you running 11+ miles when I run in place in my cramped little apartment for 30 minutes every other day! Hahaha!
Mom and Dad—I´m so excited you are getting to see Sister Pinzon! Tell her I said hello and give her a huge hug and kiss from me! Tell her she needs to write me soon cus I wrote her my very first pday and have never heard back! I just got a letter from my friend, Elder Viniscius Sant´Anna from Rio and he said you were going to be eating dinner with his parents. How´d that go? Elder Sant´Anna is really sweet and we joke around that he´s my ´brother´. So, all that was missing at that family dinner was us two! Hahaha!
Did y´all get the video of Christmas from Pres. Milder? Unfortunately, he didn´t really get a lot of our number, but oh well.
Em—Sister Bulhões thinks from the looks of your pictures that you are really quiet!! HAHAHAHAHA! I laughed so hard! Can y´all imagine Emily quiet?! Definitely the opposite of reserved. But, that´s what makes he so special in our family, right? ;) Yes, Em, many people have seen your picture b/c Mom, Kit, and Rob sent pictures and I´ve been showing them to members, investigators, etc. Hey! Did Jarrett email you yet? I´m sending you a letter today with pictures and I think you´ll get a kick out of it, k?
Well…I´m just getting over being sick. I spent Saturday night running to the bathroom toilet. Needless to say, I didn´t go to church. One of the YW came and stayed with me so my companion could go to church and support our cute Milena who got baptized. I was so sad I wasn´t there!! But, everything turned out well, I heard. Lots of members were at the baptism and we had 20 investigators at Sacrament Meeting! The Bishop gave me a blessing and I started working again Monday and yesterday, but I´m still kinda weak. The best thing was that Bishop had promised to buy us icecream when we beat our past high of 15 investigators at church, so, last night after our meeting, we reminded him of that promise. Unfortunately, I ate way too much and started to feel sick again last night and this morning, but it´s passing. I know, I need to be careful. He challenged us to have 150 people in attendance at Sacrament Meeting next and then we´ll get ice cream again. I love having goals to work for! Hahaha! Then, we also have a goal to get 100+ lessons with members in a month. I´m really excited for this one. We´re planning some things to help get these members excited about helping in the work. Any suggestions of what´s worked in the past with y´all? Life is great being a missionary! Heavenly Father truly is blessing our companionship! He has heard our prayers for the past 4 months to teach whole families—mom, dad, and kids—and now we are reaping a vast harvest of beautiful families to teach! Que coisa boa! ;) I love being a missionary and am very grateful to be a part of this work. What a blessing God uses the weak and simple to do His work, b/c otherwise, I definitely wouldn´t have any place serving a mission. I know I have much to improve, but I am learning more every day.
Thank you for your prayers and love. May God bless you all! Know that you are in my prayers always.
Love, Sister Ellis III
P.S. Thanks Nat for your email! I´m excited to hear about your trip! Hope you guys have a blast!
P.P.S. Does anyone have any news about Becky? I´m really worried. I haven´t heard from her in a couple weeks—from anyone in Tribe 5 really. PLEASE, if anyone has any news, share it with me! I promise to still work hard no matter what. I just don´t like being left out of the bubble. Thanks.
P.P.S.S. CHRISTA!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!!!!! How does it feel to be a year older and wiser?! Did you go to a spice girls concert again this year? I want to know what all you did! Write when you get a chance. Congratulations to Rob about England!! That´s awesome! I´m so proud of you! It´s nice that I get to hear of y´all´s amazing lives from someone in this family....;)
Well, just really quick, I loved the pictures of Téarisa and of Kit and Kevin! Kit—you definitely do not look like a whale and that was such a beautiful picture! All my companions just stared in awe. ;) I don´t know how I turned out the ugly duckling of the family, but at least I have beautiful siblings and nephews/nieces to show off to everyone! Joy—That´s pretty awesome about your half marathon. My friends, Sister Reynolds and I are going to do that when we get home too. You really are my inspiration—thinking of you running 11+ miles when I run in place in my cramped little apartment for 30 minutes every other day! Hahaha!
Mom and Dad—I´m so excited you are getting to see Sister Pinzon! Tell her I said hello and give her a huge hug and kiss from me! Tell her she needs to write me soon cus I wrote her my very first pday and have never heard back! I just got a letter from my friend, Elder Viniscius Sant´Anna from Rio and he said you were going to be eating dinner with his parents. How´d that go? Elder Sant´Anna is really sweet and we joke around that he´s my ´brother´. So, all that was missing at that family dinner was us two! Hahaha!
Did y´all get the video of Christmas from Pres. Milder? Unfortunately, he didn´t really get a lot of our number, but oh well.
Em—Sister Bulhões thinks from the looks of your pictures that you are really quiet!! HAHAHAHAHA! I laughed so hard! Can y´all imagine Emily quiet?! Definitely the opposite of reserved. But, that´s what makes he so special in our family, right? ;) Yes, Em, many people have seen your picture b/c Mom, Kit, and Rob sent pictures and I´ve been showing them to members, investigators, etc. Hey! Did Jarrett email you yet? I´m sending you a letter today with pictures and I think you´ll get a kick out of it, k?
Well…I´m just getting over being sick. I spent Saturday night running to the bathroom toilet. Needless to say, I didn´t go to church. One of the YW came and stayed with me so my companion could go to church and support our cute Milena who got baptized. I was so sad I wasn´t there!! But, everything turned out well, I heard. Lots of members were at the baptism and we had 20 investigators at Sacrament Meeting! The Bishop gave me a blessing and I started working again Monday and yesterday, but I´m still kinda weak. The best thing was that Bishop had promised to buy us icecream when we beat our past high of 15 investigators at church, so, last night after our meeting, we reminded him of that promise. Unfortunately, I ate way too much and started to feel sick again last night and this morning, but it´s passing. I know, I need to be careful. He challenged us to have 150 people in attendance at Sacrament Meeting next and then we´ll get ice cream again. I love having goals to work for! Hahaha! Then, we also have a goal to get 100+ lessons with members in a month. I´m really excited for this one. We´re planning some things to help get these members excited about helping in the work. Any suggestions of what´s worked in the past with y´all? Life is great being a missionary! Heavenly Father truly is blessing our companionship! He has heard our prayers for the past 4 months to teach whole families—mom, dad, and kids—and now we are reaping a vast harvest of beautiful families to teach! Que coisa boa! ;) I love being a missionary and am very grateful to be a part of this work. What a blessing God uses the weak and simple to do His work, b/c otherwise, I definitely wouldn´t have any place serving a mission. I know I have much to improve, but I am learning more every day.
Thank you for your prayers and love. May God bless you all! Know that you are in my prayers always.
Love, Sister Ellis III
P.S. Thanks Nat for your email! I´m excited to hear about your trip! Hope you guys have a blast!
P.P.S. Does anyone have any news about Becky? I´m really worried. I haven´t heard from her in a couple weeks—from anyone in Tribe 5 really. PLEASE, if anyone has any news, share it with me! I promise to still work hard no matter what. I just don´t like being left out of the bubble. Thanks.
P.P.S.S. CHRISTA!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!!!!! How does it feel to be a year older and wiser?! Did you go to a spice girls concert again this year? I want to know what all you did! Write when you get a chance. Congratulations to Rob about England!! That´s awesome! I´m so proud of you! It´s nice that I get to hear of y´all´s amazing lives from someone in this family....;)
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