London!

Jamie has wanted to spend time in London for a long time. When she received her mission call to London she couldn't have been more excited. Now that she is finally there I am sure you can imagine just how excited she is to be there. Her e-mail came being there in less than a week so next week we should hear even more about how much she loves the city. She was planning on exploring on her p-day. We are excited to hear more from her next week as she gets familiar with London. She is currently serving in the Hyde Park area which is such a beautiful and busy part of London.

Here is her current address:

Sister Jamie Ellsworth  

England London Mission 

64-68 Princes Gate 
Exhibition Road
London, SW7 2PA
England

Ok on to Jamie's thoughts...

Okay so.... LONDON!!!! yes I am finally here. However, they put you right to work (as I suspected) so I have not really had the chance to go and see London. But that is okay! today is P-Day so we are going to head in to the main parts of the city! I am soooo excited for that. that also means that I will be sending A LOT of pictures home next week. This week I only have a few.. sorry. But I love it here. My flat is actually really nice. It is about a 20 minute walk to the chapel so it is the perfect distance. It is just me and my companion and we have a huge kitchen (compared to everyone else). It is really nice and clean and it feels just like home already.

As you may have heard, my companions name is Sister Portillo- She is from Bolivia (we talk in Spanish a lot and she is slowly trying to teach me. she actually said that I am pretty good! ha). She is like the nicest person you will ever meet. She is always doing things for me and is just always wanting to serve everyone. She is a very good trainer and is always having us work. we don't even take the time to eat. honestly yesterday we didn't eat lunch.... haha but it is good. we are always working and always make sure that we are on time for things. this will be good for me. Oh except it has been a little rough since I am still a little jet lagged.. ya I fall asleep sometimes. During weekly planning you say a prayer for all of your investigators and it can be pretty long, and you probably guessed it right, I fell asleep during that. seriously I have to get up and shake out or something. haha good times.

So pretty much I have the best district ever. and the best ward. and the best area. So my district is made up of me and my companion and then 5 elders. 3 are the assistant's to the President and the other companionship is awesome. One is from Utah and one is from Hong Kong. They are all the nicest Elders ever and every morning or if we are too tired every other morning, me and Sis Portillo run to the chapel and go and play basketball with all of the elders. it is so much fun! I didn't realize how much I love playing basketball!!

Okay so I want to explain to you my area. I am part time in the visitors center yes. So we are here either from 9am-3pm or 3pm-9pm. Then the rest of the day is our to go out and find people and teach lessons. the day I got here we taught a lesson. talk about jumping right in to things. I love the visitors center. I know you can all say I told you so. BUT mine is not like any other in the world. It is pretty much the mission office so it is like 5 stories high. there is a chapel attached. they also have a gym and many rooms. this means that people from wards are here everyday to come to FHE, institute, church.. etc. it really is so cool. I am in the singles ward (Britania) and there is a college right across the street. that is where we go out and find people. then we can invite them in and have a lesson with them in the visitors center. So I will be able to watch people progress!!! yayayay! ALSO, this visitors center is the only one in the world that has....... a baptismal font! So we can show people who come in what it is and what is does/means for us. also, that is where our investigators get baptized!! seriously it is the coolest place ever here. and you get to see everyone all the time. It is just like one big family!

So two really cool experiences happened. First a couple from Romania came in and we gave them a lesson/tour. They were so interested. We sent them a Book of Mormon in their language and they also want missionaries to come by their house. Then, they also gave us their email so that we could email them videos and mormon messages. Then, a guy came in and I gave him a lesson/tour all by myself. He was so nice and has such good values. One time missionaries came to his house and they taught his family but no on joined and he was traveling a lot and didn't hear the messages. I told him all about the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the church. He also filled out a card requesting missionaries come to his house. Then I gave him a Book of Mormon and he asked me to write him a little note on the inside! THEN, he also told me that in a couple of weeks he would be back in London and that he wanted to come to church on Sunday!!

I also want to tell you about an investigator that we have. Her name is Karen. (by the way there are so many different people here who speak so many different languages. mainly Spanish, and Mandarin. oh and many Brazilian people!!) So karen is our progressing investigator now! she has had 2 lessons and it just wanting to know more! she is the sweetest person ever (she is from China, studying across the street.) Yesterday she came to church and stayed all three hours. Then we have another lesson with her this week! she also is going to start to come to all of the activities. Ahh I just love her she is so sweet. We are going to invite her to be baptized next lesson! yay! Oh and that was a cool thing.. our Elders had a baptism yesterday and we got to help out and be there for it!! Her name is Faye and she is also from China and just the nicest thing ever. she is so delicate and sweet.

My mission president and his wife are AWESOME! They are so nice. I see Sister Jordan all the time and she always looks so cute! I can't wait to get to know them more. I know I will because I am right here at the mission office so I see them all the time!

With her companion

On the rooftop of their flat

Inside her flat

Finishing up at the MTC

Our dear sister Jamie is now in London. She finished off her time at the MTC and really loved  all of it. Her last week in the MTC she spent time at Temple Square in Salt Lake City learning about being a visitor center sister missionary. We went to try and find her to give her her drivers license but she wasn't there. No wonder she was difficult to find. 

Here is an excerpt from her email:

Well now I am in visitors center training and let me just say it is so different than I thought that it would be. I feel like it is the first day again and I am having to start all over. Which is totally fine, I just wasn't expecting that. So all of my life I just thought that at a visitors center, the sisters just gave tours and gave you information. FALSE. That is not what they are suppose to do. So pretty much when you go tracting, you make appointments and go teach lessons. In a lesson depending you have a longer time to teach them and then you have follow up appointments. this is not the case in a visitors center. Pretty much what we have to do is meet someone, know thier needs, gain a love for them, and have a converting experience that makes them want to go home and do something different, all within anywhere from 5-45 minutes max. ya tricky huh. I never knew that it was like that! We have been doing a lot of TRC's (people come and volunteer and pretend to be coming into a visitor center) and I have come to realize that it is so different than what I thought and you really have to always have the spirit with you to be able to teach people in such a short amount of time. They want us to be able to give the people a converting experience and not just a "feel good" experience. But I love all of my teachers a lot and they are all really awesome! Plus, tomorrow from 3-8... just saying.... I will be on temple square doing splits with the sisters serving there! I am really excited to be able to do it in real life. I think it will be awesome to see!

Oh and guess what? I LEAVE FOR LONDON IN 4 DAYS!!! I will be there in 5 days. I will be in London!!!! AHHHHHH If you can't tell I am pretty excited for that. Also, don't worry about me here, I am still loving it. Me and my companion Sister Bergstrom seriously get along so well. It is like we have been friends forever!! people even say that we look like we could be cousins or something! haha I think thats funny!

Most of the family got to talk to her during her layover in Dallas. She seemed to be having a blast and really loving all the experiences she had in Provo at the MTC. We have heard from her mission president. She has arrived in London safely and has been assigned to her first area. Her trainer (an older missionary who helps teach those who are new) is from Brazil. We should be hearing from her tomorrow about her time in London and her first area.

A picture she took while she was at the SLC temple

With Sister Bergstrom doing something productive

You can tell they get along so well 

With her District (group of missionaries) before the Elders left for Birmingham England

With her Zone Leaders

Her companions 

Jamie went to Alta High School and this is a picture with all of the missionaries in Provo that were from her HS

Until her next update...

Jamie's 1st Week in the MTC

Our sweet sister Jamie has completed her first week in the MTC. So far it seems she is having a blast and really learning a lot. She is the coordinating sister for her zone and has ran in to two of her best friends from Draper. She gets more excited everyday to be able to teach the people of London. 

Here is a little snippet from her recent e-mail:

So .. I LOVE THE MTC!!! okay.. the food is nasty but other than that it is great. I have the two best teachers in the whole place. One gives really awesome lessons and the other does too but he really helps each person out individualy and see where we are at and helps us from there which is very helpful!! they are so great! It's funny because I was thinking to my self before I left.. "I would be just fine if a didn't serve a mission. I know enough about the gospel and I will be strong the rest of my life." okay I would have been fine but I have realized being here how little I actually know and do. Wow I swear I just moved up from sunbeams to CTR 5 maybe 6. haha really that is how I feel. Everyday my mind is blown by everything that I am taught. I love being in class and I wish it could be class time all of the time.

With her companions their 1st day 

She took this just for me! The Orange Dot means you're a newbie. 

London Bound! 

Two of her besties: Kayla and Morgan

Her District

Easter Package from The Clarks

Having too much fun!

She also said she's doing well and isn't too homesick. She loves and misses us all but not to the point where she wants to come home and because of that she's been able to help a lot of those who are having a hard time. We love and miss her and are proud of all she is doing and learning.