9:00am
Beaverton Stake Building
4195 SW 99th Street
Beaverton, OR 97005
All are welcome to attend.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
April 2, 2012
Hello Everyone!
Well this week has just flown by! My companion and I have been doing everything we can to see as much success in this area before we leave. We have had quite a few tender mercies and blessings given to us. This week I had the special opportunity of going to the temple to see one of my converts who has been a member for a year, go through the temple for the first time! It was such an amazing experience! After the temple session she came up to me in tears and kept saying thank you over and over, she was completely overwhelmed with joy. I think it is a moment on my mission that I will never forget. That was also pretty special because it was the last time I got to go through the Newport Beach temple on my mission. It is such a beautiful temple and it will always have a special place in my heart and have a lot of good memories. This week we were able to teach our investigator Vivian and Kyle. We had dinner at a members house with them and then we taught them afterward. We taught them a really powerful lesson about eternal families and how our church has the restored priesthood power and keys to seal families and spouses together forever. It was a great lesson. This week we were also able to teach a new investigator from China named Amy. She is such a great person and this week we were able to go meet with her member husband and she and her daughter. Her 5 year old daughter is so cute, and she was teaching me Chinese the whole night. I have found that the little kids are such a great way to learn Chinese from, because there Chinese is pretty good and they are always willing to help. We had a lesson with Amy about who God is and who Jesus Christ is. We had to teach very very simply, because she has no religious background at all and the idea of a God is really foreign to her. After the lesson we invited her to pray and her prayer was amazing! We are excited to teach her again this week, and we will see where things go from there.
Other than all of that, I have been working hard, and living every minute i have left to the fullest. I loved Conference this weekend! It was amazing!
I love you all, I hope all is going well. Talk to you all in next week's email!
Monday, March 26, 2012
March 26, 2012
There should only be 2 more letters home after this. Wow.......how awesome is this!!!
See his latest letter below:
Hello Everyone!!
This week has been a pretty busy week! I am writing today because we got to go to the temple today so this has become our P-Day. So I guess i will just try to catch everyone up on what has been happening these past couple of weeks. First to mention, I had my last zone conference on my mission...it was really weird to walk into zone conference and realize that I don't recognize barely any of the missionaries anymore, because they are all new elders that are replacing the oldies like us. Zone conference was absolutely amazing and we got to hear some amazing talks from our mission president and his wife. The most scary part about zone conference was when President Bowen asked for all of the missionaries that will be departing this next transfer to stand up. I stood up and then they said ok, all departing missionaries could you please come up to the stand and share your departing testimony with us. That felt so weird! Not to mention, that that was when I said goodbye to my good companion Elder Bray, he left the next morning back for Connecticut. But after Zone Conference I got myself back from being distracted and my companion and I have been trying so hard to find those that are ready in our area. We having been praying a lot to find 3 people this transfer, and just recently we have been receiving some huge miracles! So we are pretty excited! Those miracles are bitter sweet because we had a few people stop meeting with us, some of our favorite investigators even. But we are still pushing through and I am soaking up every minute of it out here. I am going to use the next few weeks to the fullest, and I know we will see miracles! I hope everyone has been doing well! I only have about 3 more of these weekly emails left, so I promise the next couple of emails I will make sure to add more of what is going on! You will hear from me on Monday!
And he sent another one as well...
Hello Everyone!
Ok, so the last email I wrote was on Friday. So I will try to catch you all up on the past couple of days.
So on Friday night my companion and I headed up to Garden Grove to our zone leaders office so we could work on a new Pass-Along-Card for our branch. We are making a new one because we found out the one that we made is not quite legal, and by not quite I mean isn't haha. We were told that we aren't allowed to use the logo of the church or copy the format of the church's new Mormon.org cards because they are both copyrighted. So, we have decided to make a new design that is approved, and I actually think it is going to be better than this first one that we made. So we have been spending sometime on making that, and I translated it into Chinese so everything on the card can be in Chinese. And then after we worked on the card for a bit we drove back down to Irvine so that my companion could conduct a baptismal interview with the other Chinese elders investigator who was baptized this Saturday! So yes, this Saturday our branch had another baptism, for a girl named Jessica Zhou who is from mainland China. She shared her testimony at the baptism and it was really good. She shared an experience how that when she was meeting with the missionaries they taught her about the word of wisdom which would require her to give up her coffee drinking habits. She was addicted to coffee. She said that she really wanted to keep the word of wisdom and not drink it but she said she was afraid that it would be really hard to do. She then said that she prayed and asked for help to stay away from coffee and a couple days later she walked into a Starbucks because she wanted coffee but as she was about to drink the coffee she felt like she wanted to throw up. She said every time after that when she went to take a drink of coffee she would get that same feeling, so she knew that it was God helping her to overcome that habit. it was a really good testimony and we are excited for her to continue to learn and grow in the Gospel.
Elder Mensink and I have been working really hard lately to find new investigators, and it seems that even though we are working hard we aren't seeing too much success. However on Sunday night we had somewhat of a miracle fall into our laps. We went to a member's house because we wanted to discuss a gospel art class we are going to help her teach this next week. This member is an amazing artist and thought of a missionary opportunity where she will use Gospel art and talk not only about the art aspect but also we missionaries can use the art to teach the Gospel, to the non-members who come. Anyway, this member told us that she had some news for us. I asked her what news that was and she said that an investigator that lives in the other Chinese elders area has requested that Elder Ellis and his companion teaches her. This investigator is one that I found and taught with Elder Bray when I was in the other Chinese area. This investigator was progressing very well and then her father died, and she stopped meeting with us because she was too busy with family and things but she said recently she has been wanting to meet with the missionaries again but she specifically requests that myself and my companion teach her. So we had to work it out with the other elders but now Elder Mensink and I will be teaching her and her husband! They are an amazing couple and are probably some of my favorite investigators I have taught on my mission. My comp and I have three weeks, so we will be praying for miracles! I hope everyone is doing well! I love you all!!
Thursday, March 22, 2012
March 19, 2012
:(
No Letter from Elder Ellis this week. He must have been very busy.
Look forward to a letter next Monday.
Well we just received news that Elder Joshua Ellis will fly home to PDX arriving April 17th on Alaska Airlines Flight 587 at 12:25pm. All are invited to welcome Elder Ellis home at the airport. In addition he will giving his mission address on April 29th at 9:00am and of course all are welcome to attend as well. This means as of midnight it is officially 25 days to his arrival!!!!
Yes I am a little excited to see my son again!
No Letter from Elder Ellis this week. He must have been very busy.
Look forward to a letter next Monday.
Well we just received news that Elder Joshua Ellis will fly home to PDX arriving April 17th on Alaska Airlines Flight 587 at 12:25pm. All are invited to welcome Elder Ellis home at the airport. In addition he will giving his mission address on April 29th at 9:00am and of course all are welcome to attend as well. This means as of midnight it is officially 25 days to his arrival!!!!
Yes I am a little excited to see my son again!
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
March 12, 2012
Hello everyone!!
This week was a pretty good week. It seemed like the time just flew by. I honestly feel like just yesterday I was writing last weeks email. This week we have been doing a lot of searching for new investigators again, it has been great. I have really gained a love for just trying to find people to teach. This week we talked to quite a few people but there wasn't too much interest. So we just kept pushing through it all and having faith that we will find people to teach. We had been praying pretty hard to find some more potential investigators and it seemed like that our efforts were not accounting to much....but then on Sunday night, we found two people that have a lot of interest and we will be visiting them this week! I think one thing I have come to learn on my mission is that the Lord will try our faith to see if we really trust in his promises. I know he follows through every time. It has happened so many times on my mission that even though the circumstances have seemed that we will find no success, when we had faith and made goals and worked toward it, we would always find what we were looking for. It has been such a blessing being out on a mission. I have learned so many lessons that I don't think I would have learned or at least learned as quickly than if I hadn't gone on a mission.
This week we have been teaching our investigator Mr. Yang, we are actually teaching him and his wife now! She finally joined us in the lessons and she is doing very well! Sometimes the husband is hesitant to read or say the prayer and she will always tell him to just do it. We have been helping the wife practice as well for her citizenship test which she will take next month. She has been kind of nervous about that test but we keep telling her to study everyday and always say a prayer before and after she studies and God will help her.
Other than those things this week has just been a lot of hard work, so not too many stories to talk about. But i am loving it and I can't wait to see the progress these investigators make in the next few weeks! I hope you all are doing well!
This week was a pretty good week. It seemed like the time just flew by. I honestly feel like just yesterday I was writing last weeks email. This week we have been doing a lot of searching for new investigators again, it has been great. I have really gained a love for just trying to find people to teach. This week we talked to quite a few people but there wasn't too much interest. So we just kept pushing through it all and having faith that we will find people to teach. We had been praying pretty hard to find some more potential investigators and it seemed like that our efforts were not accounting to much....but then on Sunday night, we found two people that have a lot of interest and we will be visiting them this week! I think one thing I have come to learn on my mission is that the Lord will try our faith to see if we really trust in his promises. I know he follows through every time. It has happened so many times on my mission that even though the circumstances have seemed that we will find no success, when we had faith and made goals and worked toward it, we would always find what we were looking for. It has been such a blessing being out on a mission. I have learned so many lessons that I don't think I would have learned or at least learned as quickly than if I hadn't gone on a mission.
This week we have been teaching our investigator Mr. Yang, we are actually teaching him and his wife now! She finally joined us in the lessons and she is doing very well! Sometimes the husband is hesitant to read or say the prayer and she will always tell him to just do it. We have been helping the wife practice as well for her citizenship test which she will take next month. She has been kind of nervous about that test but we keep telling her to study everyday and always say a prayer before and after she studies and God will help her.
Other than those things this week has just been a lot of hard work, so not too many stories to talk about. But i am loving it and I can't wait to see the progress these investigators make in the next few weeks! I hope you all are doing well!
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
March 5, 2012
Hello!!!!
Wow this week flew by pretty fast! Today we start the last transfer of my entire mission! From today it is 6 weeks left. I finally feel like I have got the hang of everything out here so I am so excited for these last 6 weeks to work as hard as I can, and I know we will see miracles! So for this past week we did a lot of meeting with our new investigators and seeing where their interest levels are. There were a few of them that ended up not being too interested but we do have a few that are progressing pretty well. One of those people that is doing well is our investigator Mr. Yang. He is the man last week I said that we randomly knocked into and about a year and a half ago I had taught him. He loves meeting with us and this last time we taught him we emphasized the importance of coming to church because he has been doing everything except for attending church, after that lesson we still weren't quite sure whether he would actually come or not, but this Saturday he called us and said "I am going to church, can you find a ride for me?" we said of course and got him a ride right away. When he came to church on Sunday he absolutely loved it. During the meetings he sat next to me and said he wanted me to translate anything anyone said in English for him because he doesn't speak or understand English at all. So throughout church I got translate for him. He is somebody that my companion and I connect with really well, and he loves talking to us. He is like a Grandpa to us. We will be seeing him again this week, so keep him in your prayers if you can :). We had a pretty funny experience with a member of our branch this week. There is a member from mainland china and he likes to have us over for dinner quite often. Well, he called us and I handed the phone to Elder Mensink so he could practice speaking to him in Chinese and then I got distracted talking to somebody else. Later that night Elder Mensink said this member said that the next day we were to go to his house and pick up some food and take it home because he was just recently given a lot of food so he wanted to give us some. So the next day we were driving over and the member called us multiple times asking where we were but I kept telling him we were almost there (and we weren't even late). We got there and I said hi to him and he said "Finally you are here! OK, go sit down, eat."....we were kind of confused because we thought we were just picking up the food, but then the member looked at Elder Mensink and said "I told you last night you would eat here. Oh come on, I told you last night" (and this is all in Chinese btw). Then he looked at my companion and said "You make me sick" (in English)....it caught us so off guard but we just assumed he didn't really know how intense that sounds in English, it was probably a phrase he learned the other day, he has used a lot of funny phrases like that with me before (one of them being...when he had to use the restroom he looked at me and said "Nature is calling" in a broken English accent) that one made me laughed really hard. Anyway, to say the least it was kind of an awkward lunch haha but it turned out really good in the end and we left a good spiritual message with him. And we left smiling and he was smiling, so I think it went well haha.
This week we also had the opportunity to go give a baptismal interview for an older Chinese couple that I had taught for a while. The older man had promised that if he passed the Citizenship test then he would be baptized. Well, he passed and he said he wants to be baptized! We used to go over every week and teach them a lesson and then help him learn English for a little bit so he could pass that test. And he did! He and his wife were both baptized and confirmed this past week!
It seems like time is going by really fast. Elder Bray will finish his mission next week!! So then it will be back down to 4 Chinese speaking elders in our branch. Me, Elder Mensink, Elder Kim, and Elder Winters. I am loving every minute of it down here. And I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for these upcoming weeks! I love you all! Hope you are doing well!
Wow this week flew by pretty fast! Today we start the last transfer of my entire mission! From today it is 6 weeks left. I finally feel like I have got the hang of everything out here so I am so excited for these last 6 weeks to work as hard as I can, and I know we will see miracles! So for this past week we did a lot of meeting with our new investigators and seeing where their interest levels are. There were a few of them that ended up not being too interested but we do have a few that are progressing pretty well. One of those people that is doing well is our investigator Mr. Yang. He is the man last week I said that we randomly knocked into and about a year and a half ago I had taught him. He loves meeting with us and this last time we taught him we emphasized the importance of coming to church because he has been doing everything except for attending church, after that lesson we still weren't quite sure whether he would actually come or not, but this Saturday he called us and said "I am going to church, can you find a ride for me?" we said of course and got him a ride right away. When he came to church on Sunday he absolutely loved it. During the meetings he sat next to me and said he wanted me to translate anything anyone said in English for him because he doesn't speak or understand English at all. So throughout church I got translate for him. He is somebody that my companion and I connect with really well, and he loves talking to us. He is like a Grandpa to us. We will be seeing him again this week, so keep him in your prayers if you can :). We had a pretty funny experience with a member of our branch this week. There is a member from mainland china and he likes to have us over for dinner quite often. Well, he called us and I handed the phone to Elder Mensink so he could practice speaking to him in Chinese and then I got distracted talking to somebody else. Later that night Elder Mensink said this member said that the next day we were to go to his house and pick up some food and take it home because he was just recently given a lot of food so he wanted to give us some. So the next day we were driving over and the member called us multiple times asking where we were but I kept telling him we were almost there (and we weren't even late). We got there and I said hi to him and he said "Finally you are here! OK, go sit down, eat."....we were kind of confused because we thought we were just picking up the food, but then the member looked at Elder Mensink and said "I told you last night you would eat here. Oh come on, I told you last night" (and this is all in Chinese btw). Then he looked at my companion and said "You make me sick" (in English)....it caught us so off guard but we just assumed he didn't really know how intense that sounds in English, it was probably a phrase he learned the other day, he has used a lot of funny phrases like that with me before (one of them being...when he had to use the restroom he looked at me and said "Nature is calling" in a broken English accent) that one made me laughed really hard. Anyway, to say the least it was kind of an awkward lunch haha but it turned out really good in the end and we left a good spiritual message with him. And we left smiling and he was smiling, so I think it went well haha.
This week we also had the opportunity to go give a baptismal interview for an older Chinese couple that I had taught for a while. The older man had promised that if he passed the Citizenship test then he would be baptized. Well, he passed and he said he wants to be baptized! We used to go over every week and teach them a lesson and then help him learn English for a little bit so he could pass that test. And he did! He and his wife were both baptized and confirmed this past week!
It seems like time is going by really fast. Elder Bray will finish his mission next week!! So then it will be back down to 4 Chinese speaking elders in our branch. Me, Elder Mensink, Elder Kim, and Elder Winters. I am loving every minute of it down here. And I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for these upcoming weeks! I love you all! Hope you are doing well!
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
February 27, 2012
Guess what folks....just 50 Days to go and Elder Ellis will be home!!! But for now here is his letter home:
Hello Everyone!
Ok, so this past week has been pretty good! Elder Mensink and I have been working very hard trying to find new investigators, because as of late we have had a lot stop meeting with us. We have knocked a lot of doors this past week! I never thought I would enjoy knocking on doors on my mission but the longer I am out here the more fun it becomes. I love meeting and talking to new people. I learn a lot from it and I love just getting outside and talking to people! On Tuesday we had the new Chinese speaking elder come in!!! Elder Winters. He is from Georgia and just came from the MTC. His Chinese is pretty good, especially just coming from the MTC. We are all very excited to have him here and the branch love it too!
This week while we were knocking, we picked a street and were going house to house. We came to one door and a Chinese man answered, and he looked oddly familiar but I didn't really think much of it. He let us in and we taught him about the Restoration of the Gospel. He really liked and about halfway through his wife came and joined us. We taught a really good lesson and then at the end I asked him if we could have his phone number, so he went and grabbed his phone, but he didn't know what his number was or how to find it on his phone so I asked him to hand it to me and i just typed in our number and called our phone so we could have his. To my surprise, when our phone got the call it popped up with a former investigators name....it completely caught me off guard, so I looked at the mans face again and I realized right away that I had taught him about 1 and a half years ago when I first came to this mission! Back then he had gone back to China and then we lost all contact with him, because we had taught him in a park and didn't have his address, but we just randomly found him again while knocking! It was a pretty neat experience, because once I recognized him he recognized me. I look forward to going back and seeing him again!
This week we also knocked into an old lady from China. She agreed to have us come in and teach her. We sat and talked with her for a little bit about what she holds dear and what she believes in. She said she has tried to believe in God and Jesus Christ before but she ended up not believing just because there is no way to absolutely prove there is a God. We had a very good lesson with her about developing faith, and at first it was going very well, but then halfway through she started being kind of rude and raising her voice and telling us faith is blind. As she was speaking I was trying to say a silent prayer in my heart because I didn't know how to respond but then I had thoughts just come out of nowhere. I told her I completely respect her beliefs and ideas and opinions, but I felt very strongly to let her know why faith in God is important. Even right now I can't remember exactly what I said but it was a very neat experience because I know I was being helped with what to say. After I finished speaking she had nothing else to say, and I invited her to pray to know if what we are sharing is true (the member and my companion must have thought I was crazy, because she had already refused to pray and it didn't seem like she wanted any of what we were sharing)...but when I asked her, she looked at me and softly said "Yes. I will" and she did! We also invited her to go to church but she said she won't be doing that but she said that she was very grateful for us coming but she really needed to think over what I had just shared with her. I had a distinct feeling that she knew it was all true. It was a very neat experience, but really hard to explain so I hope you at least get a broad idea. We found 6 new investigators this week! All from just knocking door after door after door! I know the Lord is blessing us as we stay diligent, even though I am in a tougher area, we will see miracles and we will see success! I am lovin' it here! I hope you are all doing well!
Hello Everyone!
Ok, so this past week has been pretty good! Elder Mensink and I have been working very hard trying to find new investigators, because as of late we have had a lot stop meeting with us. We have knocked a lot of doors this past week! I never thought I would enjoy knocking on doors on my mission but the longer I am out here the more fun it becomes. I love meeting and talking to new people. I learn a lot from it and I love just getting outside and talking to people! On Tuesday we had the new Chinese speaking elder come in!!! Elder Winters. He is from Georgia and just came from the MTC. His Chinese is pretty good, especially just coming from the MTC. We are all very excited to have him here and the branch love it too!
This week while we were knocking, we picked a street and were going house to house. We came to one door and a Chinese man answered, and he looked oddly familiar but I didn't really think much of it. He let us in and we taught him about the Restoration of the Gospel. He really liked and about halfway through his wife came and joined us. We taught a really good lesson and then at the end I asked him if we could have his phone number, so he went and grabbed his phone, but he didn't know what his number was or how to find it on his phone so I asked him to hand it to me and i just typed in our number and called our phone so we could have his. To my surprise, when our phone got the call it popped up with a former investigators name....it completely caught me off guard, so I looked at the mans face again and I realized right away that I had taught him about 1 and a half years ago when I first came to this mission! Back then he had gone back to China and then we lost all contact with him, because we had taught him in a park and didn't have his address, but we just randomly found him again while knocking! It was a pretty neat experience, because once I recognized him he recognized me. I look forward to going back and seeing him again!
This week we also knocked into an old lady from China. She agreed to have us come in and teach her. We sat and talked with her for a little bit about what she holds dear and what she believes in. She said she has tried to believe in God and Jesus Christ before but she ended up not believing just because there is no way to absolutely prove there is a God. We had a very good lesson with her about developing faith, and at first it was going very well, but then halfway through she started being kind of rude and raising her voice and telling us faith is blind. As she was speaking I was trying to say a silent prayer in my heart because I didn't know how to respond but then I had thoughts just come out of nowhere. I told her I completely respect her beliefs and ideas and opinions, but I felt very strongly to let her know why faith in God is important. Even right now I can't remember exactly what I said but it was a very neat experience because I know I was being helped with what to say. After I finished speaking she had nothing else to say, and I invited her to pray to know if what we are sharing is true (the member and my companion must have thought I was crazy, because she had already refused to pray and it didn't seem like she wanted any of what we were sharing)...but when I asked her, she looked at me and softly said "Yes. I will" and she did! We also invited her to go to church but she said she won't be doing that but she said that she was very grateful for us coming but she really needed to think over what I had just shared with her. I had a distinct feeling that she knew it was all true. It was a very neat experience, but really hard to explain so I hope you at least get a broad idea. We found 6 new investigators this week! All from just knocking door after door after door! I know the Lord is blessing us as we stay diligent, even though I am in a tougher area, we will see miracles and we will see success! I am lovin' it here! I hope you are all doing well!
Monday, February 20, 2012
February 20, 2012
In case you would like to know...Elder Ellis returns home on April 17th (a mere 57 days)!
Hello Everyone!
This has been a great week! It seems like time is flying by way too fast! I will try to give the best re-cap I can of this past week!
So, this week I was called by one of our investigators (I think she is one of the first investigators that has taken us up on the invitation that if she has any questions during the week she can call us and ask). She called me and said that she has been listening to her Pastor at her other church and she had a few questions for us about our beliefs. She asked me about why we don't believe in the trinity, and so I was able to explain and give her some scriptures to look at and she thanked me. Since then she has called multiple times and asked more questions, and I think it is a miracle that I am able to understand everything she is asking me and being able to answer all of her questions. Especially in the last portion of my mission I have noticed such an immense amount of blessings with speaking the Chinese language. I know God is a God of miracles and he has answered a lot of my prayers. Elder Mensink and i have been tracting a lot up by UCI (University of California Irvine) lately and we had some people saying Happy Valentines day to us, and to be honest I didn't even realize it was Valentines Day until they said that haha. Holidays just blend in when you are on a mission.
This week we taught a new investigator named Ran Zhang. He is a 24 year old guy from China going to school up here. He lives in a HUGE house that his parents bought for him (they live in china) so this house is just his, it is pretty crazy. But anyway It was really fun to teach him because he comes from a background of knowing nothing about God or Jesus Christ so we started very simple and basic as we taught. He has one of the funniest laughs I have ever seen! The lesson went really well and we have another one scheduled for this next week. After the lesson he came up to me and said "Elder Ellis, I want to decorate my house like Americans would. How do I make it American style?" I just started to laugh and told next time we will come teach him, and afterward I would give him some pointers and how to make his house American style haha. This week Elder Kim had to go to a trainer meeting because he will be training the new Elder that comes on Tuesday! So myself and Elder Mensink and Elder Bray went to go eat at a place called Slater's. It is apparently a famous burger place because they make very unique style of burgers. So for my burger I had half Pepperoni Pizza burger and half Peanut-butter and jealousy burger, the pizza one was basically a pizza inside of a burger, it was really good and the other one is a burger that is made with Peanut Butter and Jelly on it as well with some other ingredients. They may sound weird but they were super good! Aside from that we also got to teach a new investigator this week that is attending Fullerton college. The lesson we had with her was amazing and she is progressing very well! On Saturday we had a Branch Party, kind of a spring festival and there were a lot of investigators that came. One of them I was so excited to see, because she is the younger sister of the recent convert I helped teach (Sister Guo). I had met this younger sister almost a year and a half ago with my trainer. I recognized her immediately when I saw her and I said "Long time no see! Do you remember me?" and immediately she said "Of course I remember you!" and then we got to talk for a while about how she has been and then she told me "I have good news to tell you" and I said "What news?" and then she said "I want to be baptized next week." And she will be! We are so excited for her!
This week has been great! It scares me to think I only have about 7-8 more of these emails to write until I come home. I am in single digits of weeks left on my mission. I will keep working hard until the very end! I love you all and I hope all of you are having a great time and doing well!
Hello Everyone!
This has been a great week! It seems like time is flying by way too fast! I will try to give the best re-cap I can of this past week!
So, this week I was called by one of our investigators (I think she is one of the first investigators that has taken us up on the invitation that if she has any questions during the week she can call us and ask). She called me and said that she has been listening to her Pastor at her other church and she had a few questions for us about our beliefs. She asked me about why we don't believe in the trinity, and so I was able to explain and give her some scriptures to look at and she thanked me. Since then she has called multiple times and asked more questions, and I think it is a miracle that I am able to understand everything she is asking me and being able to answer all of her questions. Especially in the last portion of my mission I have noticed such an immense amount of blessings with speaking the Chinese language. I know God is a God of miracles and he has answered a lot of my prayers. Elder Mensink and i have been tracting a lot up by UCI (University of California Irvine) lately and we had some people saying Happy Valentines day to us, and to be honest I didn't even realize it was Valentines Day until they said that haha. Holidays just blend in when you are on a mission.
This week we taught a new investigator named Ran Zhang. He is a 24 year old guy from China going to school up here. He lives in a HUGE house that his parents bought for him (they live in china) so this house is just his, it is pretty crazy. But anyway It was really fun to teach him because he comes from a background of knowing nothing about God or Jesus Christ so we started very simple and basic as we taught. He has one of the funniest laughs I have ever seen! The lesson went really well and we have another one scheduled for this next week. After the lesson he came up to me and said "Elder Ellis, I want to decorate my house like Americans would. How do I make it American style?" I just started to laugh and told next time we will come teach him, and afterward I would give him some pointers and how to make his house American style haha. This week Elder Kim had to go to a trainer meeting because he will be training the new Elder that comes on Tuesday! So myself and Elder Mensink and Elder Bray went to go eat at a place called Slater's. It is apparently a famous burger place because they make very unique style of burgers. So for my burger I had half Pepperoni Pizza burger and half Peanut-butter and jealousy burger, the pizza one was basically a pizza inside of a burger, it was really good and the other one is a burger that is made with Peanut Butter and Jelly on it as well with some other ingredients. They may sound weird but they were super good! Aside from that we also got to teach a new investigator this week that is attending Fullerton college. The lesson we had with her was amazing and she is progressing very well! On Saturday we had a Branch Party, kind of a spring festival and there were a lot of investigators that came. One of them I was so excited to see, because she is the younger sister of the recent convert I helped teach (Sister Guo). I had met this younger sister almost a year and a half ago with my trainer. I recognized her immediately when I saw her and I said "Long time no see! Do you remember me?" and immediately she said "Of course I remember you!" and then we got to talk for a while about how she has been and then she told me "I have good news to tell you" and I said "What news?" and then she said "I want to be baptized next week." And she will be! We are so excited for her!
This week has been great! It scares me to think I only have about 7-8 more of these emails to write until I come home. I am in single digits of weeks left on my mission. I will keep working hard until the very end! I love you all and I hope all of you are having a great time and doing well!
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
February 14, 2012
Guess what? Josh has only 63 days left....as Dad I say...WooooHooooo!!!
Hello Everyone!
Ok, so this week has been an amazing week. My companion and I have been running around all over the place and we have had so many miracles that have just seemed to fall into our laps! This week Elder Mensink and I worked really hard to teach as much as we possibly could. We would pray for opportunities to come and they did exactly that. It has been a great testimony builder of when we have faith and work hard, the Lord will provide. This week we received a referral of a lady that used to meet with missionaries in the past and wanted to meet with the Chinese speaking elders this time. I talked to her on the phone a few times because she was out of town and she didn't know her schedule too well to set any firm appointment. We finally got a time to meet with her and we brought two members with us and went and taught her. When we got to her house I shook her hand and introduced myself in Chinese and she took a step backward and said in Chinese, "Wait. You are the one that was talking to me on the phone?" and I said "yep that was me" and she said "I thought I was talking to a native Chinese speaker on the phone!". She is such an amazing person and we have been meeting with her a lot. She asks the greatest questions and we just recently took her on a church tour with our branch president because she wanted to tour the building before she comes to church so she is more familiar with everything. We were also able to meet with our other investigator named Michael. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation, and when we asked him if he had read the Book of Mormon since we last met with him he said yes, and he had finished the 1st book of Nephi in one week! He said he really likes what we are teaching him and it is making him think a lot. Keep him in your prayers! Other than that, everything is going great out here. We will be getting a new Chinese speaking elder on next Tuesday. He is white and from Georgia, we are really excited to be getting a new elder! We still don't know who will be training him but we will see! I love you all! I hope everything is going well! Happy Valentines Day!!
Hello Everyone!
Ok, so this week has been an amazing week. My companion and I have been running around all over the place and we have had so many miracles that have just seemed to fall into our laps! This week Elder Mensink and I worked really hard to teach as much as we possibly could. We would pray for opportunities to come and they did exactly that. It has been a great testimony builder of when we have faith and work hard, the Lord will provide. This week we received a referral of a lady that used to meet with missionaries in the past and wanted to meet with the Chinese speaking elders this time. I talked to her on the phone a few times because she was out of town and she didn't know her schedule too well to set any firm appointment. We finally got a time to meet with her and we brought two members with us and went and taught her. When we got to her house I shook her hand and introduced myself in Chinese and she took a step backward and said in Chinese, "Wait. You are the one that was talking to me on the phone?" and I said "yep that was me" and she said "I thought I was talking to a native Chinese speaker on the phone!". She is such an amazing person and we have been meeting with her a lot. She asks the greatest questions and we just recently took her on a church tour with our branch president because she wanted to tour the building before she comes to church so she is more familiar with everything. We were also able to meet with our other investigator named Michael. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation, and when we asked him if he had read the Book of Mormon since we last met with him he said yes, and he had finished the 1st book of Nephi in one week! He said he really likes what we are teaching him and it is making him think a lot. Keep him in your prayers! Other than that, everything is going great out here. We will be getting a new Chinese speaking elder on next Tuesday. He is white and from Georgia, we are really excited to be getting a new elder! We still don't know who will be training him but we will see! I love you all! I hope everything is going well! Happy Valentines Day!!
Monday, February 6, 2012
February 6, 2012
Hello Everyone!
Well this has been quite the week. A lot has happened and it has been a lot to take in. My new companion Elder Chuang already went home. He decided he was not completely ready yet for a mission and on Saturday we drove him up to the mission home and dropped him off and said goodbye. The night before he left we tried everything we could to help him stay in the Mission field, but he already had his mind made up. But Elder Mensink and I are doing very well. This week we found about 3 new investigators, and I believe those are all miracles given to us from the Lord. We have really been striving to be as obedient as we can and as we have been striving extra hard we have seen the blessings just flow into our paths. We knocked on a door and a Chinese man opened it. I started to talk to him and explain a little bit of what we wanted to share with him and he immediately told us to come in and share it with him. He is from mainland china and only recently he joined a christian church. As we taught him he said he loved the idea of the book of Mormon and he kept saying he had a really special feeling whenever we would talk about it. At the end of our first lesson he told us he would ask his friends and his pastor about it....i politely told him to be cautious because of course his pastor would say he shouldn't have anything to do with it, because he will not want to lose a member of his church. But the second time we came back he felt the spirit even stronger. He said he really likes the Book of Mormon and especially how it teaches the same exact principles in the Bible. We are very excited for the next lesson with him because he wants to learn about the plan of salvation! We are seeing many miracles despite the rough patch we just went through. It has been an experience having to put my Chinese speaking to the test because my companion having served in English wards his whole mission is starting from the beginning again. I love this work and I know that God's hand is in it. I realize I have probably had some pretty lame and short weekly emails lately but I think now I can focus a little better on what I can share let you all know how everything is going. I hope everyone is doing well!
Well this has been quite the week. A lot has happened and it has been a lot to take in. My new companion Elder Chuang already went home. He decided he was not completely ready yet for a mission and on Saturday we drove him up to the mission home and dropped him off and said goodbye. The night before he left we tried everything we could to help him stay in the Mission field, but he already had his mind made up. But Elder Mensink and I are doing very well. This week we found about 3 new investigators, and I believe those are all miracles given to us from the Lord. We have really been striving to be as obedient as we can and as we have been striving extra hard we have seen the blessings just flow into our paths. We knocked on a door and a Chinese man opened it. I started to talk to him and explain a little bit of what we wanted to share with him and he immediately told us to come in and share it with him. He is from mainland china and only recently he joined a christian church. As we taught him he said he loved the idea of the book of Mormon and he kept saying he had a really special feeling whenever we would talk about it. At the end of our first lesson he told us he would ask his friends and his pastor about it....i politely told him to be cautious because of course his pastor would say he shouldn't have anything to do with it, because he will not want to lose a member of his church. But the second time we came back he felt the spirit even stronger. He said he really likes the Book of Mormon and especially how it teaches the same exact principles in the Bible. We are very excited for the next lesson with him because he wants to learn about the plan of salvation! We are seeing many miracles despite the rough patch we just went through. It has been an experience having to put my Chinese speaking to the test because my companion having served in English wards his whole mission is starting from the beginning again. I love this work and I know that God's hand is in it. I realize I have probably had some pretty lame and short weekly emails lately but I think now I can focus a little better on what I can share let you all know how everything is going. I hope everyone is doing well!
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Hello Everyone!
This week was an awesome week! I got to be with my MTC companion again, it has been a long time. It is super fun to be able to relate and talk about experiences and stories from the MTC that we both remember. We got the new Elder Elder Chuang! He is originally from Taiwan, so Chinese is his native language. It has been great to be companions with a native because i can always ask him questions about anything with the language. It has been a great help. It has been pretty intense because I have been taking the lead in talking to and teaching the investigators because Elder Chuang is still learning and Elder Mensink is working on his Chinese as well (he was out of the Chinese branch for about a year and a half in English speaking wards). I have had to rely a lot on strength from the Lord. I have seen many miracles out here. I know that without a doubt God lives. He will answer our prayers, so long as we are willing and humble enough to do our part and let our actions fulfill our prayers. I have noticed that in the past too many of my prayers were asking for help and then me doing nothing and just waiting for the Lord to give me the blessings on a silver platter. It does not work that way. Just like a loving parent on this earth, he expects us to do our best, and will pick us up the rest of the way. The area we are in has been a much slower area than the past one I was in. It seems the elders may have lost faith in it. But my goal has been to come in here and turn it around. I know if we have faith things will happen. It is really as simple as that, it really is. One day this week we were tracting all day long in Chinese populated neighborhoods. We came to one door and the man answered and I started to talk to him and he immediately told us to come in. We were able to teach him about the Restoration of the Gospel and it was such a good lesson! Every time he would ask a question we would use the scriptures to explain. We will be seeing him again this week! This Sunday we had one of the best lessons we have had on our entire missions. The spirit was so strong. We were teaching our investigator named Alex, he has been faithfully reading and praying everyday but when it comes to being baptized he has few concerns that hold him back. We spent a lot of time in preparing this lesson, and the spirit was so strong he decided to put an extra effort in this week and to pray specifically to know whether he should follow his heart and be baptized. We are very excited for him. The rest of this week was just spent getting to know the new companion and getting used to this area again. It is awesome! I can't believe January is almost gone, time is going by quickly. I hope you are all doing well!
This week was an awesome week! I got to be with my MTC companion again, it has been a long time. It is super fun to be able to relate and talk about experiences and stories from the MTC that we both remember. We got the new Elder Elder Chuang! He is originally from Taiwan, so Chinese is his native language. It has been great to be companions with a native because i can always ask him questions about anything with the language. It has been a great help. It has been pretty intense because I have been taking the lead in talking to and teaching the investigators because Elder Chuang is still learning and Elder Mensink is working on his Chinese as well (he was out of the Chinese branch for about a year and a half in English speaking wards). I have had to rely a lot on strength from the Lord. I have seen many miracles out here. I know that without a doubt God lives. He will answer our prayers, so long as we are willing and humble enough to do our part and let our actions fulfill our prayers. I have noticed that in the past too many of my prayers were asking for help and then me doing nothing and just waiting for the Lord to give me the blessings on a silver platter. It does not work that way. Just like a loving parent on this earth, he expects us to do our best, and will pick us up the rest of the way. The area we are in has been a much slower area than the past one I was in. It seems the elders may have lost faith in it. But my goal has been to come in here and turn it around. I know if we have faith things will happen. It is really as simple as that, it really is. One day this week we were tracting all day long in Chinese populated neighborhoods. We came to one door and the man answered and I started to talk to him and he immediately told us to come in. We were able to teach him about the Restoration of the Gospel and it was such a good lesson! Every time he would ask a question we would use the scriptures to explain. We will be seeing him again this week! This Sunday we had one of the best lessons we have had on our entire missions. The spirit was so strong. We were teaching our investigator named Alex, he has been faithfully reading and praying everyday but when it comes to being baptized he has few concerns that hold him back. We spent a lot of time in preparing this lesson, and the spirit was so strong he decided to put an extra effort in this week and to pray specifically to know whether he should follow his heart and be baptized. We are very excited for him. The rest of this week was just spent getting to know the new companion and getting used to this area again. It is awesome! I can't believe January is almost gone, time is going by quickly. I hope you are all doing well!
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
January 23, 2012
Hello Everyone!
This past week has been crazy. Mainly because it was the last week of this transfer call. There are some pretty huge changes too!!! SO the changes for me are that I am no longer a Zone Leader. Starting today I am a trainer!! We are getting a new elder who is from Taiwan! A native Chinese speaker!!!!!!! The other amazing thing is that I will be in a trio. My other companion is Elder Mensink! He was my MTC companion, and it is even more intense because we will end our mission together! So we started and finished. I am so excited to train this new Elder! His name is Elder Chuang and we will be picking him up from the Mission Home tomorrow! This week we got the new pass along cards that Elder Bray and I designed and ordered. They turned out soooo well and everyone in the Branch loves them. This week Elder Bray and i were driving back to our apartment for dinner and we saw a ton of food trucks lined up in a parking lot so we decided to go check it out. It turns out they had the nations best food trucks all meet on one night and it just so happened to be then. We ate some pretty amazing food. Here are some of the types of food they had....Fish and chips (the fish instead of being breaded was rolled in Goldfish crumbs), Korean BBQ mixed into a Mexican burrito, Bacon wrapped churros, bacon wrapped PB&J sandwiches, sliders made with green apples. It was all very good, and then it just so happens the one ice cream food truck that was there was owned by a member and he gave us the ice cream for free! It was a pretty neat experience. This week we had a new student come to our English class, his name is Michael. Michael is from china and he is really interested in learning what we have to share, this last week we met with him to play some basketball because he told us he loves basketball....wow he was good. Turns out he used to be an announcer for China's NBA and he is very very good at basketball. He went out of town for a little bit but we are looking forward to when he comes back.
I am so excited for this new transfer! It will be full of awesome stories and a lot of miracles!
I hope your are all doing well!
This past week has been crazy. Mainly because it was the last week of this transfer call. There are some pretty huge changes too!!! SO the changes for me are that I am no longer a Zone Leader. Starting today I am a trainer!! We are getting a new elder who is from Taiwan! A native Chinese speaker!!!!!!! The other amazing thing is that I will be in a trio. My other companion is Elder Mensink! He was my MTC companion, and it is even more intense because we will end our mission together! So we started and finished. I am so excited to train this new Elder! His name is Elder Chuang and we will be picking him up from the Mission Home tomorrow! This week we got the new pass along cards that Elder Bray and I designed and ordered. They turned out soooo well and everyone in the Branch loves them. This week Elder Bray and i were driving back to our apartment for dinner and we saw a ton of food trucks lined up in a parking lot so we decided to go check it out. It turns out they had the nations best food trucks all meet on one night and it just so happened to be then. We ate some pretty amazing food. Here are some of the types of food they had....Fish and chips (the fish instead of being breaded was rolled in Goldfish crumbs), Korean BBQ mixed into a Mexican burrito, Bacon wrapped churros, bacon wrapped PB&J sandwiches, sliders made with green apples. It was all very good, and then it just so happens the one ice cream food truck that was there was owned by a member and he gave us the ice cream for free! It was a pretty neat experience. This week we had a new student come to our English class, his name is Michael. Michael is from china and he is really interested in learning what we have to share, this last week we met with him to play some basketball because he told us he loves basketball....wow he was good. Turns out he used to be an announcer for China's NBA and he is very very good at basketball. He went out of town for a little bit but we are looking forward to when he comes back.
I am so excited for this new transfer! It will be full of awesome stories and a lot of miracles!
I hope your are all doing well!
Monday, January 16, 2012
January 16, 2012
(HE'S BACK!!! And here is his letter for the week. Josh also lost his camera this week and unfortunately he had all of his pictures that he has taken on his mission on SD Cards in the camera bag. Needless to say he is pretty sad about that. Please pray that he may find his camera and his pictures.)
Hello everyone!
This week was a busy week. We did a lot of preparation for our interviews with the mission president, because Elder Bray and I had to teach our zone while there district members were being interviewed. It went really well and I loved having the interview! It is crazy to think that is my last normal mission president interview on my mission until the one where I am interviewed at the end of my mission...time is going by way too fast! This week we spent some time up at the office creating our new pass along card for our Chinese branch. It is going to be so amazing! If any of you have seen the new Mormon.org pass along cards, it is kind of like that except we used pictures of our Chinese branch members. On the front of the card it says "I am a child of God" in Chinese characters. And then the back has a map, our church times, and bible study class info, and it is also all in Chinese characters. We already sent it to the printing company so we are now just waiting until we get them! This Sunday at church a member had his farewell talk in sacrament meeting, he is going to the Bangkok, Thailand mission. There were so many people that came to church to see his farewell, we had about 14 of our investigators come to church! I think that sets a new record. The Branch is doing so well and I love working with all these members! We are going to be getting a new Chinese speaking elder starting next week, and then about 2 weeks after that we will get another one and then will have 6 Chinese speaking elders in the Chinese branch!! It has definitely grown a ton since I first got here to the mission field! I hope everyone is doing well! I hope to hear from you all! Talk to ya next week!
Hello everyone!
This week was a busy week. We did a lot of preparation for our interviews with the mission president, because Elder Bray and I had to teach our zone while there district members were being interviewed. It went really well and I loved having the interview! It is crazy to think that is my last normal mission president interview on my mission until the one where I am interviewed at the end of my mission...time is going by way too fast! This week we spent some time up at the office creating our new pass along card for our Chinese branch. It is going to be so amazing! If any of you have seen the new Mormon.org pass along cards, it is kind of like that except we used pictures of our Chinese branch members. On the front of the card it says "I am a child of God" in Chinese characters. And then the back has a map, our church times, and bible study class info, and it is also all in Chinese characters. We already sent it to the printing company so we are now just waiting until we get them! This Sunday at church a member had his farewell talk in sacrament meeting, he is going to the Bangkok, Thailand mission. There were so many people that came to church to see his farewell, we had about 14 of our investigators come to church! I think that sets a new record. The Branch is doing so well and I love working with all these members! We are going to be getting a new Chinese speaking elder starting next week, and then about 2 weeks after that we will get another one and then will have 6 Chinese speaking elders in the Chinese branch!! It has definitely grown a ton since I first got here to the mission field! I hope everyone is doing well! I hope to hear from you all! Talk to ya next week!
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
January 2, 2012
Happy New Year!!
This week has been by far one of the greatest weeks of my mission. It started out very slow, and it seemed that our investigators haven't been progressing. Elder Bray and I just continued to work hard but it seemed everything kept falling through. Then near the end of this week we had a miracle given to us! We were called by our Branch President and he told us that he was just called by a member of another ward that was at our Chapel. The member ran into a Chinese lady that was asking for a Chinese Book of Mormon. The member got her information and then we were given her number. I called her and she told me how 4 years ago she met the missionaries. At that time she said she just had a baby and he was delivered pre-maturely and she was having a really hard time with all of the complications. She said that on one of the hardest days she was having that two missionaries came and knocked on her door. They talked to her for a while and then they prayed for her and her baby. She said they continued to come back to serve her and pray for her. She told me how she was so touched by how they would go out their way to do those simple things for her. She said those missionaries gave her a Book of Mormon, but after a few months she had to move and when she moved she accidentally lost the Book of Mormon and lost contact with the missionaries. She said she forgot about all of it during those 4 years but recently she has been having very strong feelings to get a hold of another Chinese Book of Mormon. She said she looked up where she could find a chapel online and then went to the closest one. She tried going 5 times but each time no one was there. This final time was when the member was there. So when I was on the phone with her I asked if we could meet her at the Chapel again that day so we could give her more information about the Chinese branch and she did. When we arrived I got out of the car and asked if she was Shanel and she said yes, then she said "Where is the Chinese man I talked to on the phone earlier to meet him here." I said it was me and she was completely shocked haha. We took her on a quick tour of the Chapel and explained more about the Branch and she said she was really excited to come to church. On Sunday she came and in Sunday school the teacher taught about Baptism, and at the end of church Shanel came up to us and said she wants to be baptized! We had a lesson with her after church and through out the whole lesson she kept saying she felt so happy and had these feelings that were telling her this is all true. I shared with her the experience that the prophet Joseph Smith had when he was praying to know which church was true, and afterward she said she was very moved, I asked her if she could explain what she was feeling and she said "Wubi de xiyue" which translated in English means "Incomparable Joy". She is leaving for China on Saturday and she said that after feeling that peaceful feeling she wants to be baptized before she leaves. It was the most amazing lesson I have taught on my mission and she has been so prepared for the Gospel! It is such an amazing story, one that I never thought could happen on my mission, but it really builds my testimony that God is preparing people to hear the Gospel. God loves all of his Children. I can't believe it is already January of 2012! I am so excited for this new year and to see this Branch continue to grow! I love serving the Chinese people! I hope everyone had great New Years celebrations! I love you all!
This week has been by far one of the greatest weeks of my mission. It started out very slow, and it seemed that our investigators haven't been progressing. Elder Bray and I just continued to work hard but it seemed everything kept falling through. Then near the end of this week we had a miracle given to us! We were called by our Branch President and he told us that he was just called by a member of another ward that was at our Chapel. The member ran into a Chinese lady that was asking for a Chinese Book of Mormon. The member got her information and then we were given her number. I called her and she told me how 4 years ago she met the missionaries. At that time she said she just had a baby and he was delivered pre-maturely and she was having a really hard time with all of the complications. She said that on one of the hardest days she was having that two missionaries came and knocked on her door. They talked to her for a while and then they prayed for her and her baby. She said they continued to come back to serve her and pray for her. She told me how she was so touched by how they would go out their way to do those simple things for her. She said those missionaries gave her a Book of Mormon, but after a few months she had to move and when she moved she accidentally lost the Book of Mormon and lost contact with the missionaries. She said she forgot about all of it during those 4 years but recently she has been having very strong feelings to get a hold of another Chinese Book of Mormon. She said she looked up where she could find a chapel online and then went to the closest one. She tried going 5 times but each time no one was there. This final time was when the member was there. So when I was on the phone with her I asked if we could meet her at the Chapel again that day so we could give her more information about the Chinese branch and she did. When we arrived I got out of the car and asked if she was Shanel and she said yes, then she said "Where is the Chinese man I talked to on the phone earlier to meet him here." I said it was me and she was completely shocked haha. We took her on a quick tour of the Chapel and explained more about the Branch and she said she was really excited to come to church. On Sunday she came and in Sunday school the teacher taught about Baptism, and at the end of church Shanel came up to us and said she wants to be baptized! We had a lesson with her after church and through out the whole lesson she kept saying she felt so happy and had these feelings that were telling her this is all true. I shared with her the experience that the prophet Joseph Smith had when he was praying to know which church was true, and afterward she said she was very moved, I asked her if she could explain what she was feeling and she said "Wubi de xiyue" which translated in English means "Incomparable Joy". She is leaving for China on Saturday and she said that after feeling that peaceful feeling she wants to be baptized before she leaves. It was the most amazing lesson I have taught on my mission and she has been so prepared for the Gospel! It is such an amazing story, one that I never thought could happen on my mission, but it really builds my testimony that God is preparing people to hear the Gospel. God loves all of his Children. I can't believe it is already January of 2012! I am so excited for this new year and to see this Branch continue to grow! I love serving the Chinese people! I hope everyone had great New Years celebrations! I love you all!
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