Week 43 - Fantastic week!

September 22, 2014
     OHHHHHH man, this week was great! So much growth and learning, it's been fun. Elder Bayly is the most prepared greenie in the entire world, he is just on fire. He's a quick learner and is just catching on to everything so fast. He hasn't complained about one thing, and he's just awesome. I thought every new missionary just complained a lot and had problems... haha well that's not true. (haha I wasn't the same as this guy when I first came out.) He's going to be like an assistant or something before he goes home, he's utterly fantastic. So yeah, Elder Bayly's awesome and I love him to death. He's an 18 yr old from Lehi, Utah and went to UCAST or something like that. Very smart kid.

     Anyways, people are still progressing well. Olive came to church for the first time yesterday!! And she absolutely loved it. She says that she knows this is the true church of Jesus Christ on the earth. It's really cool to see her faith and sensitivity to the spirit. She committed to get baptized in October! So we're really excited for that. Bob is still doing good, 5th week in a row coming to church, he just has some WoW issues to work through. Chrissy came as well, but her daughters were sick or something. Sometimes it feels like she doesn't want to bring them like she doesn't like them or something.... we'll work on that. :D Met some really cool people this week as well that we started teaching, and turns out this one family already knows one of the church members when we brought him over... That was really cool. Instant fellowship! Bam, cool miracle there. Lots of grace and miracles, they just keep coming. Life's great!! Dang it, I left my camera in the car again. Sorry about that. I'm trying to get better. Don't be afraid to ask questions or anything! I really am trying to get better about sending pictures.

     Well, I want you all to know that I love you! God takes care of us missionaries out here, and it's really nice to have Him on our side. Really really nice. :D Have a great week everyone!!

     Love, 

     Elder Ellis

Week 42 - Transfers tomorrow!!!

September 15, 2014 

AHHHHHHH just kidding, transfers aren't that scary. Another transfer gone by, and boy, it has been a good one. So much work to do all the time, seeing people change their lives, its pretty awesome..... Lots of great experiences, and just even more work to get done next transfer. woohoo! Lets go! :D

      The calls came in this morning, and the news is: I'm getting transferred after only 6 weeks in an area again!! AHHHHHHH Just kidding, my companion Elder Horne is leaving, and I'm staying. Haha finally! This is going to be the first time I've received someone into an area. Pretty crazy. And its going to be a brand new missionary too, so he'll need some prayers... a lot of prayers.... Maybe a few angels. Yep, its gonna be fun!! :D SO Glad I'm not leaving Richmond. Love it here so much! :D 

    Well, other than transfers, this week was really fun. The REDS game was super awesome!!!! Literally got to see every missionary in the mission there, and it was blast. I didn't really watch the game, it was pretty boring and they lost 0-5, but talking to people for 3 hours was so much fun! its crazy how many missionaries you know after getting thrown all over the mission. :D Great fun. I would have pictures that I took but I left my camera in the car, so maybe next time...

     Investigators are doing well, except for Christian, he thinks God's telling him to go to another church.. so we're gonna have a talk about how the spirit speaks to us. c'mon man. :D he'll get there. Chrissy... might be homeless in a week... But she still wants to get baptized and is in the process of quitting smoking. So that interesting, but she'll be alright. BOB!!! gosh, I love bob, he's doing great. Getting baptized in October, he's reading and just having a grand old time. He's come to church every Sunday for a month now, so its great to see his commitment. He's just got to live the WoW and he's good. He's a great guy.

     OH YEAH!!! WE got to see Steph again today!! We haven't met with her for a month, and she's been super busy and we all but lost contact with her. But she was home on Friday! And she's doing great! And she quit one of her jobs! and she should be able to come to church this Sunday! And its... just.. ajbfhisbdfiubf miracles, woo!!!!! :D she's a rockstar. (Elder Horne is super sad he's leaving now that we got in contact with her again.)

     So all in all, its been a great week, a great transfer, and a great year. :D Life rocks everyone! Keep at it! I love you! 

-Elder Ellis

At Cincinnati Reds Baseball Game

                                                  Photo bombing President Porter

Week 41 - Paul got really wet...

September 2, 2014

Heck yeah Paul got wet! He got Baptized!!! WOOHOOO! It was a fantastic service, and he gave a great testimony. Very sweet and simple, but the spirit just came into the room and pierced us all to the heart. It was really cool. And Bob, another of our investigators, came to the service and he felt the spirit very strongly. He agreed to be baptized on Oct 4th if he knew by then. Which is a great step! He's been doing great, and I am confident that he will have his answer by then. He's been absolutely loving church, and receiving awesome fellowship. He's a great guy, and his whole demeanor has changed in the past 2 weeks. Go Spirit!!! :D

   

We had a lot of other cool miracles this week, and people are progressing well. Christian came to church for the first time this Sunday, and he loved it! Which is always awesome. He's a really nice kid. Chrissy's doing good as well,  her husband(ish), Chris is a less active and his testimony just came roaring back into him after 28 years of not going to church or anything. His last time there was when he was 12, and it's just awesome to see that change inside him. Miracles really are just everywhere and they continue to happen. It's really cool to be able to see God's hand in all of this.

     

Oh yeah!! We get to go to a Red's game next Monday! It's going to be with the whole mission, and it's going to be the funnest thing ever! Haha I will have to take lots of pictures and tell you guys about it. Well I love you all! Have a great week!

-Love Elder Ellis

Week 40 - Happy Monday everyone! My favorite day of the week. :D

August 25, 2014

    So, life is still pretty stinking awesome! I dunno if you guys ever get tired of hearing that, but you shouldn't, cause its so true. This week was so full of grace and miracles, and it was just amazing. Lots of really cool experiences, I hope I can remember all of them. Probably won't, so pay attention! :D Cause they're really cool. I mean it.

    Haha so first off, we had an amazing lesson with Randy, Nikki, and ChrissAnne. They were about to get kicked out of their apartment last week cause they couldn't find a job, and it was pretty scary. But Friday night, we went over with the Battraws, a couple that just got back from serving a mission in South America, and the spirit was very strong the whole time. Randy was crying a lot, just wanting help and direction from God. We showed Moroni 10:3-5, and told him the pattern for receiving answers to prayers from that. We promised him that if he got down on his knees right then, and said a prayer, that an answer would come. So he got on his knees and prayed with all his heart. And the answer came, from a source none of us thought it would. 5 minutes later, the Brother Battraw offers them both a job working in his house, fixing it up after they had been gone for so long. It was an answer to their prayer, and it was just amazing the spirit that was there. They came to church for the first time on Sunday, and they said they enjoyed it and will come back next week. I was just amazing to see how the Lord will work through people.

    We had a lot of people come to church for the first time yesterday, and they all had a fantastic experience and the members just welcomed and fellowshipped them really well. It was really cool to see them all there and people introducing themselves to them, and..... just.... miracles!! everywhere. :D It was an awesome day yesterday.

    Everything is going well with Paul, he's committed to live everything, and he's going to get baptized on Friday! We're putting the program together tonight, and everyone needs to come because the spirit at baptisms is very strong. We're excited for him.

     Chris and Chrissy... will wait till next week, don't want too much information. But they're amazing! and another miracle. Chrissy's preparing to get baptized next month, (Chris is a LA) and everyone's loved her so far. Randy's family is as well, so if everything goes to plan, next month is looking really good.

    Oh yeah, Steph's great grandma died, so that's taken up her whole week, we only got to see her once. So hopefully she'll have a lot more time this week. And hopefully she quit that second job she works on Sunday! God will bless her for it. :D

     Anyways, I'll send some pictures of the baptism, and hopefully I didn't forget too much! Life is just grand. I just love you all! Have a fantastic week! :D

-Love Elder Ellis (Love can include letters, cookies and chocolate. :D Haha just kidding)

Week 39 - Life's Great!!!

August 18, 2014
    
    As the title states, life is great. Really, it is just so great. Being a missionary is incomparable to anything else, and there truly is no way to describe it. The only way to know how it feels is to be one yourself. And everyone can do that! Members make awesome missionaries. Haha, anyways, life's good.

    Another fantastic week, lots of good lessons. We had Steph and her 3 kids over at the bishop's house and had dinner with him and his wife. We have an awesome bishop here by the way, he is very missionary minded! And he loves the heck outta us. :D Love that guy. So the dinner went really well, and she had a great talk with the bishop and his after dinner. She's reading the Book of Mormon, she believes everything we've taught her, and is progressing really well. She's made lots of friends in the ward as well, and they're willing to help out. She wasn't able to come to church yesterday because she wanted to put in her 2 weeks notice before just dropping the job, she feels bad for her employers cause they need her alot.  But she's awesome! Oh yeah, and she was getting a bunch of crap from friends and co-workers about coming to our church, and she just puts them in there place! haha tells them they don't know anything about the church so they can't say anything about it. She's sticking up for us! We're very excited for her, and her kids as well, they're so dang adorable.

    Paul's doing very well also, we had dinner with him in a member's home, he's keeping commitments, and he was at church yesterday. He's still working towards August 29 for baptism, and he's loving the church. He's like 52. Cool guy.

    There were also a lot of other people that we've been teaching, but most of them ditched out on church yesterday, which was pretty disappointing. But we've got a lot more up our sleeves to get them there next week, so through faith the miracles will happen. Randy and his family agreed to work towards Sept. 13 for baptism as well, so we just need to get them some awesome fellowship as well so they'll come to church. The fellowship opens people up for the spirit to come in and testify of the truthfulness of our message, so its very important. But anyways, its great here in Richmond!! :D The work in going forward. Don't be afraid to pray for these people! it makes a difference. You are all amazing and I love you! Have a great week! :D

-Elder Ellis

Week 38 - Richmond, IN

August 11, 2014
Guess what!!!!! I got transferred to Richmond, Indiana! Woot! Back to Indiana I go! Haha, and its in the Muncie stake, so amazingly I got here right in time for the stake priesthood meeting, and I got to go back to my old building! And see all the amazing people from my wards up there! All the men at least. It was a really cool experience. And we have zone conference tomorrow, so I'll get to see all the missionaries again! Haha I am so blessed. (Gave Elder Price a HUGE Hug haha :D)

     So Richmond, Indiana.... is amazing!! I love it here so much. I have a fantastic companion (Elder Horne) and he is just great, love him to death!! We have seen immense miracles every single day, finding prepared people, super spiritual lessons, and things are just amazing. Good job, Man upstairs! :D Cause its all Him thats doing it, and its just cool to see it happen. I do truly love it here. Oh yeah, my address is 117 1/2  N. 11th, Richmond, Indiana 47374. So yeah, its amazing.

    Oh my goodness, so the biggest miracle this week is Steph and her family. She is a single mother of three boys that we started teaching my first day here. The boys are Braden(7), Chase(5), and Riley(2). She is having rough time with life, and she wants to raise her kids to know God. We've had super spiritual lessons, they came to church yesterday, and she's preparing to get baptized August 30. She's amazing. And her kids! haha they are so hilarious! We had dinner with the family at a member's home saturday, and Penelope is doing an amazing job of fellowshipping them, and she loves them all so much. I also understand why its so hard for parents to focus during sacrament meeting. Haha, they really are just a miracle.

     We also found a few other families, which are planning on coming to church next week, which is gonna be sweet. Gave an amazingly spiritual church tour to Damon, single dad of 3 kids, and was gonna bring them Sunday, but his ex-girlfriend kept them for the weekend after a fight that they had... Which was very sad to hear, he's had a rough weekend. But he's another miracle.

      So, all in all, its been an amazing week, and the work is progressing. God works miracles everyone!! he really does. There was no reason for any of this to happen with these people, but it did. So keep believing, and keep working hard! I love you all!

-Elder Ellis

p.s. Never be afraid to pray for these people, specifically Damon. He needs it. And Steph's family just cause their amazing and Satan's gonna start working on them really hard in the next few weeks. Thanks!

                                             New companion - Elder Horne

Week 37 - Gone!

August 4, 2014
So I was correct in my assumption that I am getting transferred! I am leaving Maysville, KY, just after 6 weeks. Which stinks! Haha, we've been getting such good work done, we've got 4 people getting ready to be baptized in the Month of August. haha and I won't be here to see it! But that's ok, Elder Rose is gonna take good care of them. He's training a new missionary! Which is great, cause he's gonna do a fantastic job of it. I'm really excited for my next area, its gonna be so sweet! miracles are going to happen there as well. Elder Rose you're amazing! Keep being an awesome missionary!

     A very bittersweet experience.... I absolutely love this place, I love serving with elder Rose, and the Littles, the Branch is growing like crazy, made tons of new friends... man, its gonna be a tearjerker tomorrow. But I am excited for my next area, and I know its going to be an amazing experience for both me and my companion. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Haha, I'm a little nervous, but its gonna be lots of fun. Go Spirit! God solves all our problems haha. 

    Well, I Love you all!! Sorry that I don't have any pictures, my camera is not charging for some reason. Have a fantastic week! I'll let you all know where I am next Monday! Love ya! :D

-Elder Ellis

p.s. You all rock! :D

                            Elder Ellis clipping a tree for a family

                               Elder & Sister Little and Elder Rose