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 

Happy Days!

March 3, 2014

FAMILY!!

It has been such a good week! Ahh I am loving it more and more out here. I love being in the countryside and with all of these wonderful people! 

Sooooo, this past Saturday our investigator Lisa got baptised!!!!! She is just the cutest. There were some troubles with the fount at first so while the members were dealing with it, I sat at the front talking with her about everything. There was one thing that I really loved that she said. She said, "I love how the people in the Church of Latter-day Saints live the truth." How true that is. There was another woman I was talking to who is less-active due to health reasons and when we asked her, what is faith to you, she replied, "Well I guess you could say, my faith has shaped me, if that makes any sense." I absolutely loved that definition. Seeing these two woman who were both converts to the church, has a strong testimony of the power of change that comes as we have faith in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Faith is more than just believing. It is acting upon the conviction that you do have and allowing that to shape who you are, how you live your life, and who you want to become. 

I think I told you last week about our investigator from Latvia? Well, him and his wife will be getting baptised on the 15th! yay. Anyway, we had a really great lesson with him again and we followed up on the Word of Wisdom. (this is a hard one for him seeing as he smokes, drinks alcohol, coffee and tea) We had a lesson and the members is really good friends with him and was so good in the lesson. He was still doing those things and we really committed him to stop. Well, during the lesson he got up and went and poured out all of the alcohol he had in the house. Wow. He said, "This is what I have to do if I want to be baptised on the 15th and if I want to go to the temple with my family." That is how powerful the atonement of Christ is. We can all change no matter our circumstances or how hard it may be. He has such a strong love for God and has such a strong desire to follow him perfectly. Also, to be sealed with his family forever, that he is willing to make the sacrifices necessary. I think that is so wonderful. It definitely does build my testimony when I see it. 

Oh funny story. Last night we were out tracting some houses and we went to this house and knocked on the door. We were just waiting there for someone to answer and all of the sudden this man open and said, "Oh Jesus". At first I thought he said this because he was excited that we were there to talk about Jesus Christ but actually he never heard us knock and was going outside to get something and we really scared him! haha it was so funny. We were all just dying laughing. But hey, we are going back this week to teach him! yay!

Well family, I love you all so much! Thank you for being the best family ever! I hope you all have a wonderful week!!!!!! LOVE YOU!!!

Love, Sister Ellsworth 

Driving in London is Crazy!

March 24, 2014

Hi Family!

 

This week has been great! I was really sad to leave my last area but I am back here in London and getting in to the groove of things again and I am loving it. I absolutely love my companion. She is so much fun. She is from Alpine Utah and we get along so well. We have just been having so much fun! As for the ward, I love them already. I do know a lot of them already but they are all really excited about missionary work and getting more involved with the missionaries.It is so nice to see. I can already tell that I will love it. As for the work, we just had a man get baptised and he got confirmed on Sunday. He is from Lebanon and I just think that it is so amazing to see so many people from all over the world and so many different religions joining the church. The Lord really is hastening His work and I have seen it hasten within the past year that I have been here! Right now we don't really have any investigators. haha BUT I am excited. This just means that there will be a whole lot of finding new investigators which will be great. I know that if our faith is strong enough, we will see miracles happen and the work will progress in our area.

 

Okay family, guess what? so for transfers, both me and my companion had to be to Hyde Park at 11 so President let us drive the car. OH MY GOSH. So I drove all the way to London and I got to drive in London. We took a wrong turn and I ended up at this HUGE round about in the centre of London with no stop lights........ haha but it was so fun and I didn't die or crash. Now I can say that I did it! haha it was so much fun tho!

 

Anyway, not too much else going on. I love being back here in London. It really is the best. It is like a big family here and I am loving the VC. So many things have changed in just 6 weeks but it is good. I hope that you all have a wonderful week. I love you all SO MUCH!!!!!!!

 

Love, Sister Ellsworth

Happy to be back in London!

With her mission bestie, Sister Bergstrom

One Year Already?

Sorry friends of Jamie for not updating her blog in a while. I am slowly working my way back but for now, please enjoy her most recent update. She just got transferred back to the Hyde Park VC in London after being out in the country side for only 1 transfer.

March 31, 2014

Hi Family!!

I hope you are all doing great! I am so happy to hear that Wisconsin is in the final 4. They are going to make it all the way! Also, family, can you believe that last week I hit my year mark? ahhh that is so crazy. Time has just flown by. I can't even believe it.

This week has been good. I am just loving serving with Sister Ferrell. We have so much fun together. It is fun because we both love waking up every morning and running to the chapel to play basketball with the elders, and we just get along and have fun.

So yesterday was mother's day over here in England. So, in the VC we made a cute table in the front with a whole bunch of things to make a mothers day card. We then went outside and got people to come in and make them. It was so fun and it got more people in to the centre and we got to teach them more. I love doing fun creative things like this! And the weather is getting warm over here so people are out and so friendly! 

So pretty much, Sister Ferrell and I are only teaching men and Muslim men. Literally. But it is so fun! We are teaching this guy who is really progressing. He reads like 8 chapters from the Book of Mormon a day and he is really starting to have faith in our Saviour!! Also, Best thing of my life. A man from Lebanon got baptised just 2 weeks ago and on my year mark, he took us out for some real Lebanese food. When the food got to the table we just started eating (we were so hungry) and he said, "Girls, slow down, we still have more coming!" haha we just about died. He ordered SO much food but it was all SO good. I love getting to experience all of these cultures! Then at the end, they came out with this dessert called Baklava. Wow. So good. Not your typically dessert but it is so good. What a good way to celebrate! 

So it was really cool because we had a really nice experience actually this morning. So, I had forgotten how in the VC our numbers are completely different than full proselyting! They are obviously so much lower because we only have half the time and pretty much non of the elders really understand that. Anyway, we worked really hard last week but there were 2 days where we got absolutely no proselyting time because we had conferences, therefore making our numbers a bit lower.... well, this is hard for others to understand sometimes. Anyway, I could tell that Sister Ferrell was having a hard time with it this morning and I was thinking about what they had said a lot and so I decided to pray. Ultimately, our accountability for everything in life is first to the Lord. I love that because as I was praying I got a confirmation that everything was okay. We can improve and we will but He is still pleased with our work. Anyway, we were talking about this in companionship study this morning and we decided to pray together. As we did we asked for the spirit to teach us how we can improve and to help us feel comforted. It was so cool because after we were done we talked about it and we were both prompted by the spirit to improve our companionship study. Haha it is such a random thing, but that is what we both felt. We just thought it was the best thing ever because it was a moment when we could both recognize the spirit so specifically. I know that Heavenly Father answers our prayers. I know that He knows what each of us is going through and He will be there to help us, we just need to simply ask. I am so grateful for the relationship we can have with our Father in Heaven.

Anyway, I hope that you all had a wonderful week! I love you all so much!! Thank you for all of your love and support that you show me! I am so blessed with such a wonderful family! LOVE YOU!!!!!

Love, Sister Ellsworth

Lebanese food!

Mother's Day card station

With Hussain, the Recent Convert

Peace in Church

As some of you know from Martha's blog posts I have been in the middle of a move and house hunting and have been slacking on the blog posts for my sisters who are out serving The Lord. I am doing my best to play catch up so keep checking back this week for more updates on Jamie. Here is her most recent email.

Hi Family!

So I know that you already know because you were sent pictures but... Kara got baptized on Sunday! It was so great. She has just been wanting to get baptized for so long and so I am so happy for her that it was finally able to happen. It was so fun because the past couple of weeks we have just been really trying to get her involved with the ward and everyone has been so great. We took her with us for a couple of dinner appointments so that she could meet people. It was so much fun! For most of my mission I have not really gotten to experience the whole having dinner appointments.. so it has been really fun meeting with members and bring investigators along!

The work is still going just great. Honestly, we are so blessed and I am constantly amazed at how much the Lord really is in this work. He does everything. Haha we are just here because he can't be at the moment. He is preparing and sending so many people are way and it is just wonderful. He really is wanting His children to hear the gospel and He is getting it to them. So, there is this girl who use to be taught last January but she went home to China right before she was going to get baptized.. I guess there just wasn't enough time. Anyway, she is back! We met her yesterday and she is so wonderful. She is so excited to start having "classes" again. She is so cute. Our investigator Lee is still awesome! We love when we get to see him. It is so much fun! And actually, he is coming to Utah on the 28th of this month and he said if there is anything you want to give him to bring back to me that he would get it.... just saying. haha He is great. He is getting baptized on the 27th of this month and he is so excited about it. He is having a hard time because his family does not exactly support him with it but we have faith that it will still be able to happen. Also, do you remember the investigator we have, Maggie? Well she is just the cutest. She really wants to get baptized but there are some things that we are trying to figure out first. But it was the best moment ever. On Sunday we were sitting in sacrament meeting and during the sacrament she turned to me and this is what happened. Maggie: "I feel so peaceful when I sit in here. I just love it. How do you feel when you sit here?" Me:" I feel so happy and peaceful too." Maggie: "I don't like how it changes so much when I go outside and walk on the streets. I just want it all the time." Then I explained to her how that is what we can have as we are baptized and have the gift of the Holy Ghost. As we have that gift and remain faithful by keeping the commandments and studying, we can feel like that when we are just walking outside. She really started to think about it. Some of the commandments are hard for her, which I don't blame her it is a whole new change, but I could tell that she just really started to think about it a lot. It made me so happy just sitting there thinking that I am so blessed to be able to have the opportunity to help others come in to the gospel.

Okay so family, I have to tell you this story that happened... hahaha too good. So, there is a group of BYU-I students over here and I was standing at the front of the VC Sunday morning and they came and stood in the front. First of all, I got to see Kim who I coached volleyball with my first time coaching. It was the BEST thing ever. I just love her! But it was so fun because I saw so many people that I know on Sunday. Both of those people, then another girl and then I got to see the Andrus'. Ahh it was so fun!

Well family, I love you all so much! Thank you for being the best family EVER. And yes, you that don't write me, I guess I still love you too.... just kidding. I love you guys and I hope that you have a wonderful week! LOVE YOU!!

Love, Sister Ellsworth

Just started a new transfer a week or so ago and is still with Sister Sua! 

Her friend Kim, from BYUI was in London!

London is so beautiful! 

With their recent convert Kara

With the Andrus family from Draper, Ut, her home ward 

Having fun! 

Ella and Sui at it again!

Another transfer has passed for Jamie and she is still with Sister Sua and loving life. She's glad she stayed in the same area with the same companion.

Family!!

Another transfer is here! ahh so crazy. I tell ya, they just go by way too fast! But I will be staying in Britannia for another transfer!! Yay I am so excited! and I get to be with Sister Sua again! We just have so much fun together and I am so excited! Also, I think I was saying it last week.. I just love the people we are teaching right now and I did not want to leave them at all!!

So right now we have some awesome people that we are teaching! Last week we got a referral from a member in the stake. She rents out a flat and a cute girl from Poland just moved in! She asked if she could come to church with her and now she will be coming to the Singles ward! She is perfect. First of all, she is the cutest thing in the world. She is so pretty and fun and talks.. a lot. I love it. We taught her for the first time last week and she is so prepared. We asked her to tell us about her and she started off by saying she is like an 80 year old women. haha She hates partying, alcohol, smoking, even coffee. She is great! We are seeing her today and I am so excited!

Then there is Difei. So last week I told you how funny he is. Well I swear it just gets better every time we see him! This past time he wanted to know if we would be moving this transfer or not and we explained to him that we didn't know. haha then he told us to pray about it, get the answer, and then let him know. oh and then we tried to set a date with him.. and we did.. for.. haha he explained how he thinks his faith is too small and that we met him at the end of june so a year would be good for him. ahhh haha this guy. Well, don't worry we are trying to move that up!

Ploy! She is just great! I love seeing her. It is the best when you have a great friendship to start with and then go from there! We taught her last night and it was very basic but it was so good! I am so excited for this next transfer! I know that if we just press forward with faith and turn it into action, doing everything that we can, being our best self and pushing ourselves, the Lord really will bless us and we will continue to see miracles!

Oh and guess what? Remember my roommate Leanda from England? Well she is back!! She has been here a couple of times to visit and then this past Sunday her and her mom made us a ton of food! It was the best thing ever! Man I just love her so much and I love having her here!! I will send some pictures of us!

I love doing this. It is amazing when you see the Lord send his prepared children your way and to see them change and live the gospel! I have come to see how powerful the spirit really is if you just let it change you. I mean we all still have our agency but if we are truly willing to let it touch us it will bring so much happiness. I hope that you are all doing great and that you have a great week!! LOVE YOU!!

Love, Sister Ellsworth 

Working on taking more pictures

Loving the rain

Leanda made them lunch. It was Ghanan food and she loved it!

"So let me explain the story behind this one. There is this old Muslim guy that ALWAYS comes in to the VC. And every time I say hi to him he says the same thing... and he only says it to me.. haha he says, 'You should wear the veil'. So naturally this is what happened"

Her recent find in the closet of her flat

They found these hats while sopping on pday

Love life in London

Hi Family!

Well this week has been great. Honestly, I know that I say it every week, so sorry if it gets old, but I really love this work! The people we are currently teaching are so awesome! They are all so different from each other and have such different needs. It is so cool to get to know these people and to help them build their relationship with God. Each person is unique and I love seeing how other people work! 

haha funny story. So that guy Nick that we found last sunday.. he is just awesome! I can't really explain what he is like but he always makes me laugh. So, we had an appointment set up with him the other day and I sent him a text to confirm and he replied with "Hey, I;m not in the mood today. Thanks anyway" haha I just started laughing. Then we taught him and this whole time he kept saying, "I just don't fit in here." Turns out that the whole time this poor guy thought we were trying to change who he is. (He was part of the Jehovah Witnesses' and that is what they do apparently) Well, we got over that and now he is doing really great! ha

Avtar ended up not being able to get baptized this past week.... he is having a hard time with the word of Wisdom. So we are working hard on him and really trying to help him to stop! Jillian is doing well. We actually got her to commit to a baptismal date! But it is kind of a conditional date! But she is really wanting to push forward and I have faith that she will get baptized on the day :)

So saddest day ever... We taught Chris this last week and we ended up having to drop him. It honestly made me so sad but Sua and I knew that that was what we had to do. He was not willing to come to church and to keep commitments. We still keep in contact but we are no longer teaching him. That is probably the hardest part about a mission. Seeing people not accept this message even when you know they are ready! 

So this past week I had a work over with one of the Sister Training Leaders (they are new) and it was great. I realized that I need to be more bold in my missionary work. That is how people will know our purpose, that we love them, and they will be able to accept the message better. So I have really been focusing on talking about baptism in the first lesson and being bold but loving. I can testify from experience now that it really does work. People then know exactly what they are there for and our purpose. haha you think I would have learned this earlier.... 

So Sister Sua got sick again, poor thing. This time it was yesterday (sunday). It was so hard because we had investigators come to church but we were not able to be there! But thankfully the elders helped us out there. But pretty much I just got to stay home and study, study, study. It was so good for me tho. I really learned a lot. Then we went out and took a walk to get out of the apartment and we found a girl who we are teaching tomorrow! It is so fun to just always talk with people. That is the thing about being a missionary. You never just take time off because pretty much everyone you meet needs the message that we share! 

I love you all so much! You are the best family a girl could ask for! Keep being the best people ever and I hope that you all have a wonderful week! LOVE YOU!!

Love, Sister Ellsworth 

With her companion, Sister Sua

She loves London

So someone dropped a bag of clothes off to Jamie and told her they thought they would fit her. So her and Sister Bergstrom tried them on...

These two...always up to no good...ha

The Royal Baby and a Week of Miracles

Hi Family!!

I am sorry to hear about Uncle Mike. I bet it is hard but I will make sure to keep them all in my prayers and thoughts!!

So I can't even explain how blessed Sister Sua and I are being. It is really amazing. We have come to realize that the harder you work and the more diligent you are, the more you have the spirit with you and the more you have the spirit with you the more the Lord blesses you because he can trust you with his precious children! We have training every Saturday for the VC and one thing they always teach us is to make sure the Lord trusts us. If there is no one coming in to the VC it is because we are not preparing ourselves to receive people, therefore the Lord will not send them our way. Wow is that so true. haha I have noticed that when I am not taking it seriously at times, no one comes in but when I am ready, we have the best VC days ever!

So, people always say that at different points in their mission they realized that they were called to that place for a reason. Well, as we all know, the VC wasn't my first choice but I honestly love it more than anything. I know that I was called here for a reason! The other night I was sitting at the front, alone, waiting for any visitor to come my way. A Chinese man came in and was admiring the paintings. I told him he could come in and I would be more than happy to explain them to him (the restoration paintings), so he came in! I went through the pictures and he explained to me that he knew about God and Christ but being from China he was very limited on his knowledge about them. So, I explained the restoration to him and really emphasized God is our loving Heavenly Father and returning to live with God. He stopped me and asked, "Why do I want to return to live with God?" Then I started talking to him about his parents and how much he loves them. I told him that through this gospel we are able to be with them forever and that God is our Father in Heaven and we want to live with him forever as well. At that point the spirit touched him so strongly and I have never seen such a quick change in someone from the spirit. It was amazing! We kept talking and he asked me why I decided to come on a mission. At the end he told me, "I have never heard something so simple, yet amazing. Thank you so much. I have never met someone before who really knows something from the bottom of their heart." He gave me his email and we are going to be in touch. Also, as he was walking out he stopped and came back in. He asked if he could take a picture with me! haha I loved it, it was just so great! I am so grateful that the Lord trusted me enough to send him into the VC. When he said those things to me I realized that I do know that this is true from the bottom of my heart. There is nothing I love more than this gospel and my Heavenly Father. Just the thought that I have the opportunity to see and be with him one day makes me SO happy! And that is exactly why I am out here. I want others to know how much God really loves them and to help them remember how much they loved him before. To know that they can be with him and their family, forever!

Ah that brings me to this other guy we met on the street last night! We were out street contacting and I stopped this guy. He was having a horrible day and at first was not willing to talk with me. But then I decided to just talk with him and not really share anything. We ended up talking for a while. He talked about how sad he was and how much he wanted to feel God's love in his life but he had no idea how to have it. Sister Sua then came and joined and we promised him that he can have that in his life! By the end he was smiling and laughing with us. We are seeing him later today! I am so excited!

Also, Avtar is getting baptized this Sunday!! That in itself is a miracle!! We

 just met him and he is just so ready! He is the best. It was just the best week ever. We we blessed to teach so many lessons and still had time to go find and get more people. So much fun!

Also, remember my district leader from last transfer? well he has come back to London! haha he came to church yesterday so we got to see him! It was so fun! He is here with his parents so we got to meet them as well. They are so sweet and he had his mom bring us a souvenir! haha she brought us this big chocolate bar from Finland! yum. I just love all of the people that I have met out here, they are the greatest.

I love this work so much! More and more every day! I am really starting to see even more that the hand of the Lord is in every moment of it. Let's be honest, if this were all up to me, I don't think anything would really get done.. haha. IT it so great and so fun! I love the gospel! I hope that you all have a wonderful week! I love you all so so much!! Thank you for always supporting me and loving me! You truly are the BEST family in the whole entire world!!!!

Love, Sister Ellsworth 

Oh and I forgot to mention, the royal baby was born!!!!!!! How cool is it that I get to be here for that. I think it is pretty great! It has been all over the city. The newspapers, facebook, etc. There was actually an announcement outside of Buckingham palace!! Honestly, it was pretty much what everyone was talking about for days! Love it!  

With her fave

Someone dropped these off at the Visitors Center and they had fun with them!

Sister Sua let Jamie cut her hair...

The Royal Baby

Gary the Crazy Bird

Hi Family!

Okay so haha it has been another crazy week. I swear, Sister Sua and I won't ever have just a normal week.... but it was so great still. We get to see so many miracles all of the time and I just love it!

So, let's start at the very beginning...  I don't know if I told you last week, but last Monday we lost our phone. Let me just tell you, don't ever loose your phone. Especially when you have new investigators and a lot of appointments for the week.. haha I don't understand how they did missionary work back in the day. seriously. So then because we didn't have a phone, the next day was rough. Okay so just promise me that when you read this you won't think I am a bad missionary.. promise? haha we felt so bad the whole day. Anyway, we always set our phone alarm to 6:29 but on Tuesday morning we had to use just my alarm clock. So we woke up got ready and headed to the chapel so that we could be there around 9 to be in the VC and to call to try and find our phone. Okay so we get there and we look at the clock.. ya it was 10. hahaha my clock at home had somehow been set back and hour so we woke up an hour late!!!! ahh ha we felt so bad but it was so funny! That is the thing. Sui and I just laugh at everything because so many stupid things happen to us! 

Then poor sister sua got soo sick. But like I said, it might have been a crazy week but we did still get to see miracles! So we started teaching a guy last Monday named Avitar (yes, that is his real name) and we set a baptismal date with him last Wednesday! so awesome! We are working with him on the Word of Wisdom at the moment but he is just so awesome and so willing! He always talks about getting baptized and he is really looking forward to it! 

Then, do you guys remember a couple weeks back I told you about a guy who came into the VC and came to church the next day and how he told me he had already read half of the BoM? Well I have been in contact with him through email and this is what he wrote to me last time, It is so amazing!

"Ever since I first read the Book of Mormon. I have had a deeper love for the scriptures and a stronger desire to love, serve and keep the commandments. After I read over half of the book, I felt a complete change of heart. I felt a deeper resolve to live the gospel than I had ever had before"

Is that not just the coolest thing ever? Honestly, ask Sister Sua, when I read that I just about died it made me so happy! He is just the best! and like I said last week. The BoM can really change lives if you give it a chance. Also, this past week we got to see Chris and you know how I just think about him and how we can help him all the time! Honestly, I swear I am always thinking about him. Anyway, we had a really great lesson with him and we made a calender. So on this calender it has a place where he can mark everyday if he has read the BoM and if he has prayed and he is going to bring it to every lesson. We promised him that if he really reads the BoM and wants to know if it is true, that he will come to know that it is true.

Then we went to do a service project with the Elders. We went to this lady's house and did gardening, as they call it here. I had the honor of mowing the lawn. haha sadly, I miss it. It brought back the good old memories of the days when I had to mow the lawn.. But they use the weirdest lawn mowers here. They are electric and just weird. Ha I don't know how to explain them. But don't get any funny ideas. On day when I will come home I will suddenly be sick of mowing the lawn again.

There are so many wonderful opportunities I get to do being a missionary. I love this work so much and I love being out here in England. This is the number one mission in the world! Honestly tho, it is.

Oh and one last story. So the chapel/VC is on one of the busiest roads in London. haha There is this bird (named Gary/Moroni) who stands on top of the spiral of the chapel or the flag post of the science museum. He is here everyday, and never leaves. So, he just stands there and watches the street for runners. haha yes. every time a person comes running down exhibition road Gary literally attacks them. He swoops them and grabs their head. We always just stand out on the steps and watch it happen. haha it is so funny to see the runners get so scared and confused. Actually it is kinda scary. One morning sister Sua and I were running to the chapel and we didn't think he would be there that early.. but he was and he came and attacked us! haha too good.

Well I love you all very very much and I hope that you have a wonderful week!!

Love, Sister Ellsworth 

Fish and chips with Sister Sua

She had to right?

With her district!

Another Crazy Week

Hi Family!!

So let me just tell you... this week has been so crazy. hahaha I feel like we have been running all over the city...but hey it is great!

So to start. The lock on our flat has been broken for like a month now and someone was suppose to come and fix it but they hadn't... Then on friday morning when we left our flat, it was still broken. After a long day we were excited to get home, plan and then get to bed but guess who's lock had fallen off? haha yup. ours. So we couldn't get in to our flat and we had to go walk over to the other sister's flat and sleep there. Sleepover with Bergy tho! haha that was so fun! Then in the morning we went to meet up with the senior missionaries at our flat to try and fix it but that didn't work. Then they just left us there. We were homeless. So we went to the grocery store, bought breakfast and started heading to the chapel... but then we had a great idea. We called up the Wilson's (one of the senior couples in the visitor's centre) and they let us come over to their flat to show and eat! It was so nice of them. We were so happy!

As for the missionary work, it is going so great! Wow I cannot even tell you how blessed we have been. We have honestly seen so many miracles! This past week we found so many people to teach! This upcoming week is just full of appointments with new people, it is awesome! I love going out and finding new people. I have really been able to see that as long as you just get out there and do it with a good attitude and try your best, that the Lord really will put in the rest to help you!

There have been so many times where we have just gotten blessed with meeting people. Last thursday a member brought his friend to institue and we were able to sit and talk with him for a really long time. He doesn't believe that there is a God but he prays to know if there is one. You can just tell by looking at him that his soul is searching for something more. That is what I love about the gospel. It fills that missing peice that sometimes we don't even realize is missing until we find it.

Also, yesterday there were so many people that just decided to come to church. They weren't meeting with missionaries or anything, they just wanted to come in and see what it was like. So naturally, we went and spoke with them. We met with one of them today and he is awesome! He has already been reading the Book of Mormon and he feels like what he is reading is a miracle from God. Ahh how awesome is that! He is so great and really wants to learn more!

As for Chris and Jillian? Well Jillian is doing well. I just really love her. She is so sweet and loveable. I love the friendship that we have and I can tell that she is just really starting to open up. Then for Chris.. Well for a while he was not responding to us and I was so worried. However I did not want to give up on him, he had come such a long way! Finally the other day he responded and we met with him the next day (friday). He told us that he was considering just not even meeting with us anymore but he decided to give it another chance. haha well I am so glad that he did. He was the most happy when he was wanting to be baptized and that is also when he was reading from the Book of Mormon. If I have learned one thing already from my mission, it is the importance of the Book of Mormon. That is what holds everything together. By reading that and pondering and praying if it is true, that is when you will get your answer. The Book of Mormon is so important and you can never know if this is true unless you put in your effort to read the book and pray sincerely to know if it is true. I have come to really just love the Book of Mormon so much. I am always so excited for personal study every morning when I get to read it.

I love being a missionary more than anything! My testimony has grown so much it is crazy and I love it. I hope that you all have a wonderful week! I miss you all and love you very much!!

Love, Sister Ellsworth 

Celebrating the 4th of July...in England

Family!!

We are starting a new transfer tomorrow! It is so crazy how fast time goes out here on in the mission! I feel like last transfer just started  But I am excited for this next transfer. I will be staying in Britannia (The ward I have been in since the beginning) and I get to stay with sister Sua! I am really excited! We get along so well and we just laugh. all the time. Also, she is just amazing! She is such a great teacher and has such a strong testimony! I learn so much from her!

So as you all know, it was the 4th of July this past week. Don't worry, I still celebrated. It was so much fun! Kinda weird celebrating our independence from Britain in England.... but hey, it works. So even though Sis Sua is not from America, she celebrated with me! We made a special breakfast of french toast. haha then we sang American songs for companionship study and we also said the pledge! It was so fun. Then everyone in the Visitors Center dressed in Red, White, and Blue. Don't worry I will send some pics. Then we got fed a nice American BBQ dinner. I loved it. 

The work is going good as well. The ward that I am in has been having so many baptism's and it is so amazing! We are finding a lot right now trying to get some new investigators! We have been getting a lot of appointments which is really great!

Also, Jillian is doing great! Man I just love her. She is so sweet. Today we actually went out and spent our P-day with her. We went to this really cool street in London that is pretty popular. It is a really long street that is just filled with a whole bunch of different stands, charity shops, and antique shops. It was so much fun! Also, she is really loving the lessons and the church! Right now we are working on setting a baptismal date with her! yay!!

Oh and guess what guys?! Guess who came to the chapel this past sunday? Elder Quentin L. Cook! How cool is that!! So he came and I got to meet him and talk with him. Then President Jordan came up to Sis. Sua and me and asked us to give him a tour of the Visitors Centre! Like I said, this mission is the best. There are so many amazing things that happen!!

I love being a missionary and doing this work! I hope that you all have a wonderful week! I love you guys so much!

Love, Sister Ellsworth

Tired after another late night of performing in the missionary band

Celebrating the 4th!

All the Visitor Center sisters dressed up for the 4th

Out to lunch with her district. It's a small district. 

The Elmy's

Jamie is in full swing training mode now and is loving her new companion and her district. It sounds like she has such a fun mission!

Holla Mi Familia!!

So let me just start off by saying how much I have loved this past week! I love Sister Sua! (She is my new companion) We get along so well and we have so much fun together! Honestly, we just laugh all day long! I love it!

This week has been so great tho honestly. So pretty much we are both so new at this whole mission thing that we realized we just need to rely more on the Lord and try our best and have fun while we do it! We both wanted to improve our finding. Haha at first it was really hard to go out finding because I didn't have a senior companion to rely on but it has really helped me to be able to have the faith to do it. This past week we went out finding and we got so many potential appointments and we are getting new investigators as well!

As far as our other investigators, they are still doing good. Chris has been out of town for the last week and a half, so we really haven't gotten to see him.. which has been kinda sad. Then, Jillian is doing great! She is just the sweetest little thing ever, I love her! and the member that we always have come teach with us just moved here so they became really great friends! They went and took a day trip down to the white cliffs of Dover (they invited us but of course we couldn't go.. I was so jealous! ha) Also, we are teaching a new girl named Vin and she is just the best. She came to church yesterday and she was just so fun and sweet. She is always smiling and laughing and I just love it. She is from Thailand and is here studying!

I just love being a missionary so much! Talking with people about the gospel and testifying is the best thing ever. I love going outside and just being able to talk with people and get to know them. Also, I love all of the missionaries that I serve with. I hate it when they leave and decide to go home... worst part haha but they are all so fun! This past week we had the funniest district meeting ever. My district leader was playing music when we all walked in the room and then he got up and performed for all of us. Then he always picks a hymn that is funny and has some weird like trumpet thing haha hard to explain but so funny! Also, each transfer we get a zone calender where each person has a day and it has events on it that will happen. Today we had what was called "The Elmy's". haha they just came up with it this transfer but the zone leaders made a powerpoint and made an award for each person in the district and then Elder Helske (My district leader) did the funniest performance again. Honestly I just love it here. My journal is full of such fun stories and memories that I would never want to replace.

Sorry this is kind of a short email but I can't really think about anything else that has happened. All I know is that I love it here so much! I am so happy I decided to come out and serve the Lord in London! I love and miss you all very much! I hope you have a wonderful week!!

Love, Sister Ellsworth 

With Sister Bergstrom at "The Elmy's"