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!
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
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!
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