Dear wonderful family,
I love you all so much. This week was full of many tender mercies. It is such a blessing to see Heavenly Father's Hand, every single day...if not every single moment. There are so many things I took for granted before my mission. I feel like I took almost everything for granted. How amazing Utah is and how blessed we are to have so many members in one spot. We have a ward and a stake. We have a patriarch that lives in the same country that speaks our own language, not only that, our patriarch lives a few blocks away, could even walk if necessary. With that blessing, it is very easy for us to receive Patriarchal blessings when we are ready....Polish members don't have that luxury. I also took for granted the security of home and how strong the Spirit is everywhere. We have an amazing ward building, that's HUGE. Our ward, before my mission, was I thought, a smaller ward, before the change and everything....no its huge. Also, I took for granted the fact that people understand who missionaries are. We are so blessed. As the saying goes, you don't realize what you have until its gone. I feel so abundantly blessed that in a year's time, I will be back enjoying all those blessings, which makes me more determined to give these amazing Polish members all I can before I leave.
I'm so grateful for all of you, for your love,support and prayers. For your encouragement and patience and well...everything.
I'm grateful for the chance to be me, and to be able to understand a little more of who I actually am. 'We can not determine who we are by actions, by mistakes or accomplishments, we find our identity by asking the One who created us'. (yes, that is a quote I just made)
Tuesday- taught a young adult aged (25 +/-) woman named Sabina. She's awesome. We're teaching her English and the gospel half-and half. She's Catholic and isn't planning on changing anytime soon, but she's super curious and has intense questions. I have no doubt that in time as she learns more she'll want to have all of the gospel as part of her life.
Also on Tuesday taught Natalia. She is also a young adult-20's. She is married and is pregnant. She is wonderful. She is searching for truth and has been going to all sorts of different churches to find it. Though she suffers from skitsofrenia (I have no idea how to spell that word, so its phonetically spelled), which causes her to really fear praying, 'because she does not want to hear voices inside her head'. Previous experiences in other churches have worsened her physical state, causing her concern. She's amazing.
Both Sabina and Natalia are so wonderful and we thankfully get to continue teaching and working with them.
Wednesday- a miracle happened as we were calling people on the potentials list and Jadzia (dzi making a hard 'juh' sound, like 'ju' in judge'), answered and said she wanted to meet right then. So we dropped what we were doing and went and taught her. It was an amazing lesson, led by the Spirit. She understands so much about having a personal relationship with Heavenly Father and that means for her. Its beautiful. She's Catholic, and not interested in changing, yet. Absolutely love Jadzia, she's amazing.
Thursday- we were trying to get a hold of a member, who apparently never was actually baptized. Teressa, she is an older lady, very old, but very active despite that. She's always doing something and very hard to get a hold of. So we went to her house, she didn't answer, so we were walking down the street and suddenly...there she was! She was walking down the street, so we were able to talk to her and spend a little bit of time with her as we rode the tram with her to the next place she was going. Love that lady.
Friday-had another lesson with Sabina, which was great. Though from the start of the day I was feeling dizzy and semi-nauseous. By the end of the day I was only semi-conscious and we came in early and Sister Swenson insisted that I go to bed early.
Saturday- we had a wonderful morning looking for a less-active, her house was really hard to find, making it a great adventure, despite her not being home. Then by the time we got to the chapel...well I was sick again. I was shaking at that point and I broke down crying in pain. I had the Elders give me a blessing. I am so grateful for the Priesthood and that the Elders were at the chapel, and that they live worthy to exercise the Priesthood. I was still sick, but blessed with 'the wisdom and faith' to make what choices I needed to. Which at that time was going back home to rest and get better. A beautiful miracle was that I was completely better while I was outside, able to contact and get home without a single sign that I was sick. I then slept for the rest of the day, waking up near the end of the day to make a few calls to investigators and potentials.
Sunday- I was well enough to go to church, take care of everything and everyone, have the missionary meeting with the stake president, then during lunch, my body 'gave out' again and Sister Swenson and I went home and slept some more. Then woke up around 6:00 to get out the door to go try to teach a family who lived nearby, apparently they don't actually live there. But some teenage girls gave us a referral to the nearby block (apartment complex), and we went and tracted every single one, which no one did want to listen, but I know that we were supposed to do all that for a reason, planting seeds is important too. We were able to talk to one family for a few seconds before the mom shut the door, so we were able to leave 'A Family: Proclamation to the World' in their mailbox, which will surely help them.
I love being a missionary. I love the gospel.
Oh and I'd love to share these quotes that you can share with others:
"In addition to inviting us to hold personal and family scripture study, Heavenly Father wants u to regularly study and apply what we have learned in Conference." ('General Conference:Strengthening Faith and Testimony' by Elder Robert D. Hales) are promised that as we put our trust in Heavenly Father and head His counsel in faith we will be blessed with greater strength and also more peace and comfort in our lives.
"We move forward together. This is our opportunity, our responsibility, and our blessing. This is our destiny- to prepare the kingdom of God for the return of the Savior"- '(Power in the Priesthood' by Elder Neil L. Anderson)
Have a great week everyone! Have a great Thanksgiving! Happy Thanksgiving!
Love,
Siostra Ellis
P.S. I am grateful for our Savior, for His love, for His Atonement and everything He does for me. All the good that I am, I am thanks to Heavenly Father and our Savior.
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