Hello, family!
Life is good down south. I´m very happy for Nat and Matt. What a blessing she got here safely! I am very grateful for everyone´s updates and emails and pics. Thank you! Thanks, Kelly, for the beautiful emails about Becky. Not going to lie, I did cry again, but I am happy she´s not suffering any more. I loved what you shared about the trees in the forest. I am going to do my best to step up and be more Christ-like and loving because of the example Becky gave me. How blessed I feel to have had those wondeful 2 years with y´all at BYU. Thank you, Kelly, for everything. Thanks, also, for the bday list. Could you send me the bdays of the grandkids, inlaws and their addresses? ...when you get a minute, of course. I know you´re busy. Send my love to everyone. Do you think y´all could make a copy of that DVD and send it to me to watch on Pday? I´d really appreciate it. Thanks!
We are being really blessed her. We are doing our part and watching God do His. We are opening our mouths and He is putting His elect in our path. What a blessing to be led by the Spirit! What a blessing to have God in charge of our lives--a perfect, loving, all-knowing Father!
Sunday, the Gospel Principles lesson was about obedience. We talked about the 2 great commandments--love God and your neighbor. It really made me stop to reflect about my actions in the day to day. Am I showing God that I love Him by the way to talk, act, and think? If we truly love Him, we would never have a mean or inappropriate thought. We would never speak impatiently or do something to hurt another or disobey His commandments. I am grateful for repentance and the chance I have to change to do better! Heavenly Father is so merciful adn wonderful! I feel like singing praises to Him everytime I think about all the blessings He gives me. May you all have a wonderful week, remembering to SHOW you love God through your actions, words, and thoughts. He deserves our very best.
Love, Sister Ellis III

Hey, family. Sister Rosa is from São Paulo, Dad. Her parents were born in the nordeste though.
Life here is good. I am very grateful for the updates from Kelly (I cried reading the whole thing) and from Kit (also cried a lot). Thank you, thank you, thank you! News is better than no news at all. I also am praying for all of Tribe 5--esp. Mick.
We are teaching a great family now. Marcelo (the 11 yr old son) went teachign wtih us Sunday afternoon in the ridiculously hot sun here (100+*). It was so cute. He took us to more than 10 houses of neighbors and friends and only wanted to be called Elder Santos. :) What a beautiful sight it was.
That´s all for today. Time´s up. Love you all! Thanks for the packages Kit, Mom, and Dad. I´m very grateful for you all in my life. I loved the pics of Teairsa. She is adorable!
Love ya!
Sister Ellis

Winter?

So we are now in Brazil´s ´winter´. It is very interesting that winter here in Mato Grosso has a temperature of 95*--120*! What a cold winter! How sad that I didn´t bring my thermals! ;)
Life is good here in Cuiabá. Last week Sister Sena was transferred. Now it´s just me and Sister Rosa. We are having a lot of fun together. We reorganized our apartment and it´s a lot nicer to live in now. It is so much nicer to only have to focus on training one person rather than two. What a relief! :)
This week, we have been working on preparing a man for baptism. He´s 84 yrs. old! He loves to talk. The other day, he was telling us a story about how he used to work all day and all night without eating lunch. He´s quite a trooper--still has great health and walks all over the place--even in this cold climate! ;) It was really funny when he was telling the story. I remembered all the jokes my brothers always told of the old man telling the story of his life--walking to school uphill (both ways), etc. Hahaha!
This is now the third time I am trying to send this email. We went to the lan house this morning and it didn´t send 2 times. Now it´s at the end of the day and we just finished some visits and stopped by to send a line so y´all don´t worry (and to send our report to President). Gotta love technology!
I wanted to say happy birthday to: Becky and Matt (a little late), and to Darrell, Rob, and Kelly coming up. I am so grateful to have y´all in my life. Hope y´all have great birthdays--and many more in the future.
For future reference, the mission requested mail and packages to be sent to the p.o. box.
Sister Rachel Ellis
Missão Brasil Cuiabá
Caixa Postal 10264
78050-975 Cuiabá--MT
Thanks!
Love you all!
Sister Ellis
P.S. Mom and/or Joy--I´d love the recipe of those peanut butter chocolate chip cookies too when you get a minute...:) Thanks!

I tried writing y´all, but the computor froze. Gotta love technology! :)
Now y´all get the condensed version.
Happy Birthday to Matt (late), Becky (late), Darrell, Laura, Rob, and Kelly. I love you all very much and hope you had/have great days!
Thank you Mom and Dad for the packages. I´ll get them tomorrow in district meeting. For you all to know, President gave permission for me to watch family videos on PDay since it doesn´t work to see them on the internet. If y´all want to make DVDs, I´d love to watch them. But I can´t see the videos through email, fyi.
For future reference, send all mail to the mission´s po box.
Sister Ellis
Missão Brasil Cuiabá
Caixa Postal 10264
78050-975 Cuiabá--MT
Thanks! Love you all tons!
Thanks for all the emails, scripture references and quotes. I love being uplifted by you all. What a wonderful blessing to have a family like this!
Thanks Mark and Aup for your help with the blog thing. That´s pretty cool. Y´all are very sweet.
Love, Sister Ellis
P.S. Joy and Mom --I´d like that pb chocolate chip cookies recipie too please. :)

I love you all!!

Well, this week showed some definite improvement. Thank you all for your effort! I loved seeing all the pictures of my cute neices and nephews and hearing all the great news. I´m so happy for Mark in his school work, Rob and Christa being pregnant, Cameron´s bike riding success, Nat´s baby girl being so healthy, Mom and Dad´s new kitchen, Spencer´s success with the Brazilian elect in Portugal, etc.
Thank you so much for the emails. I had to add extra time to my internet hour to read everything, send my report to Pres, reply to yáll, and check the referal site! Opa! What happiness!
The special recognition today goes to Joy Marguerite who wrote 2 emails--the 2nd arriving as my first hour of internet was coming to an end. What a land slide finish!! Safe! It got to my inbox just as I was to write to y´all. Thanks, Joy, for you dedication. Way to endure to the end! You must eat challenges for breakfast! ;)
Thank you for all your prayers, fastings, etc. I am feeling the effect of all your love. Mom and Dad, I haven´t received anything yet because the transfer hasn´t come out yet. Hopefully it´ll come out today soon.
We are going to have a goodbye party for our trio with some great home made food in our apartment---beans, rice, churrasco, cake, cookies, etc. I´m excited! I am truly grateful for this experience I have had with these wonderful sisters. Yet, all good things must come to an end...(sigh). But, I know that God is in charge and always has our best interest in mind.
Life is good. We had some crazy experiences with a crazy woman coming after us b/c she didn´t want her husband to get baptized, but all´s well that ends well. Delson won´t be baptized unfortunately b/c his wife is jealous of me (thinking that he has a crush on me) and is ridiculously fanatic in Congregação Cristã. But, hopefully down the road, her heart will be softened. Sorry, there is no time to share details, it´ll have to wait for after the mission.
Thanks, Nat for Abby´s address. I love hearing about the boys funny sayings. I´ll be sure to pray hard for you and for the baby to move on South. ;)
Spencer--I really hadn´t gotten your email last week b/c I get on the internet earlier than you. Thanks for your update though. I love hearing of your successes!!
In other news, we are working with reactivating a woman and baptizing her husband. They are such a cute couple and have adorable girls wtih bouncing curls. I am very grateful to be part of this process in helping families become eternal.
Love you all!
til next Monday...
Love, Rae (aka Sister Ellis)
P.S. Does anyone know why my email to Becky came back this last week? Did she change her email?

August Already?!!

Hello, lovely family.
Question: Is there cream of milk in the States? I certainly hope so bc I´m learning a lot of scrumptious recipies with cream of milk. I don´t know what I´ll do without it!!!
We are being very blessed here. I am receiving a growing testimony of work with members and of prayer. What a blessing to be of use in God´s work!
We were blessed to meet with the irmã who gives class in gospel principles. The Holy Ghost helped us know what to say so she wouldn´t get offended. She was teaching in a way that scared away our investigators. So, we sat down with her and planned out the lesson for Sunday. We shared some tips/techniques of teaching. The lesson on Sunday was 10 times better! It was amazing to see how much she improved. Even the shyest investigators participated--asking questions and commenting. Dón´t worry, we´re not telling the members how to do their callings. The bishop has been travelling a lot and this was the next step for us to help our investigators to continue to progress. We did it very tactifully so that it was more of a team strategy than a critique on the irmã.
Through one of my street contacts who showed up at Church, we were able to find a less active. What a blessing! It is amazing to see how God works. I know it was His plan for us to find this sweet woman to help her in this difficult time. She knows she needs to come back to Church--esp. to help her 2 beautiful girls not make the same mistakes she did.
Mom--I don´t know if you´re getting the emails of my friends, but several have written me asking to receive my weekly emails. If you could please forward my weekly emails to Janelle Oehler, she would be greatly appreciative. joehler88@yahoo.com Thanks! Also, Jenny Mobley wants them and Matt Coffin. Love you! Thank you for all you do. You are the best mom ever!
Love, Sister Rachel Ellis
P.S. Recognition this week goes to Grandma Turtle!! The ONLY family member who wrote me this week. THANK YOU GRANDMA!!!
What a blessing it is we have repentance, huh? ;) HAHAHA!