The Middle East?

Family!!!!

It has just been the best week ever. Hasn't it? I absolutely LOVED general conference! We do have to watch it on a different schedule than all of you but we still get to watch it! and since the last session was too late for us to watch yesterday, all of the VC sisters went over to president's flat to watch it today! It was so much fun and we all made lunch after we watched it! I love getting to be so close to President and Sister Jordan. Also, I just loved General Conference. I thought that the messages were so good and so perfect. To me, I kind of pulled out that the main theme was to stay grounded in our testimony and faith no matter what and that our testimony and faith NEED to be in our Saviour, Jesus Christ and His Atonement. What a powerful message. And I especially loved it because we had 3 investigators come to it and they were all Muslim...... perfect. And they all actually really loved it as well! 

So, we are teaching this guy and he is soooo good. He comes from a very Muslim background (At the moment we are only teaching Muslim men from the middle east haha ) and when we first started to teach him he was not very receptive..... but I told you a little bit about him last time. Once we gave him the Book of Mormon, he completely changed! He now reads like at least 2 chapters a day and comes back with all of his questions. He also came to 2 session's of General Conference and really loved it. He said that he knows what we are teaching him is true but that since it is such a huge and dramatic decision, he wants a little bit of time. The spirit of God is powerful. It can change the hearts of any one who is willing to soften their hearts and listen to it. 

Not too much is new at the moment. We are just working hard at trying to find new investigators. Actually, funny story. So we were out talking with everyone and people were stopping and talking with us but we weren't getting any new investigators or people to teach. So, we decided to say a prayer and ask for people in our area to teach. After that, for the next 30 minutes, not one person stopped to even talk to us. haha we were just laughing so hard at that point. Heavenly Father really does have a sense of humour. But I realized, it is not really faith if we just give up when we don't get what we want. We must continue to endure at all times. That is true and lasting conversion that God is real and He cares about you and wants to help you!

I hope that you all learned something new from General Conference and what you can do to strengthen your testimony in our Saviour and in His church. I know that this gospel is true and it is the key to our eternal happiness as individuals and families. I love you all SO much and I hope that you have a wonderful week!! LOVE YOU!!!!!

Love, Sister Ellsworth 

 She loves these girls!

Feeding squirrels at Hyde Park

Hyde park 

New Shimai Dendo

Dear Family-

 

First off, the weather has been gorgeous out here for most of the week and we got to see the beautiful Sakura flowers blossoming.  Be prepared for  a lot pictures coming your way. 

 

So Yonago.  I love that it is by the ocean and mountains and not fully surrounded by cement buildings everywhere you turn.  I am slowly starting to get to know the ward and investigators, and they all seem great.  It is a bigger ward though, so it will be hard to remember all of the names. 

 

So nothing big as far as the week goes, but there was quite a big announcement at last weeks ZTM for how the mission is going to be run.  Zinke Kaicho has been doing a lot of thinking and praying, and he has decided to make a big change in the mission.  After realizing that around 90% of Japanese ward members are less-active, he is now switching dendo (missionary work).  The elders will go about their usual business, but the sisters full time and attention goes towards finding and teaching the less-actives.  We no longer have to make sure we have a member present.  They have already started it in one area and it has been really successful.  We will count LA as we would a normal investigator.  We can teach non-members as well, and most will be in a part-member family, so we can teach them all at once.  Then once the LA reaches certain requirements and seems fully activated, it is counted as if it were a baptism.  Kaicho realized that the sheep we are looking for may already be members who have just lost their way.  I am so excited to get to work on this!  Seriously, I think it will be so fun and successful.  We will be teaching more and finding less because we have the addresses of the LAs.  Plus, most of them already know a missionaries role, so they wont be surprised by that.  Anyway, it isnt into full swing yet, because we still have to get the members on board to help with finding out some of the information we need, but I hope it is in full swing by next week.  Seriously, I cant wait to get to work. 

 

Anyway, that is about all for the week.  I am jealous you all got to watch conference this weekend.  I cant wait until I get to this upcoming weekend.  It sounds like it was a good one....as always.  Anyway, I hope you all have a great week and start applying what you learn from conference to your everyday life starting now.  Love you all!

 

Ellsworth Shimai