Change of email

Dearest family,

This ldsmail account that I was using as a missionary will be shut down soon. Please resume emailing me to my hotmail account, modernstriplingwarrior@hotmail.com  . Should I change to a more sober sounding email address, I will be sure to let you all know. Thanks!

--Spencer Ellis

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Keep breathing, that´s the key!

"We dwarves are natural sprinters! Very dangerous over short distances!"

 

Hello lovely family!! I love you all and am grateful for the emails sent. My prayers are with you all, especially with Rachel´s tooth situation. The final stretch has finally come, and I´m going to sprint to the finish! Love you all very much, and I´ll see most of you next week. Much love,

 

--Elder Spencer Ellis

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Lagos looking up!

Hello lovely family!

 

Great to hear the news, funny quotes from kids, and see pictures! I´m very happy everything is going so well for everyone!

 

Things in Lagos are going well. We´ve found some new people that look promising - a Brazilian family/friends group, a Brazilian couple (the husband was actually baptized a few years ago in Portimão, a neighboring city with a solid branch, but has been attending a different church for the past couple of years) and a Portuguese young man of 17. This young Portuguese kid, André, came to church on his own and liked it too! (Of course!) Yesterday was our zone conference, so we´re taking care of the Preparation Day essentials - groceries and internet - today. The zone conference went really well, and we´re really going to increase our efforts to focus on and find the elect. Then teaching and helping them be baptized will be easy as pie! (Apple... or chicken pie... take your pick.) So we´re going to focus on this young man André, and this 9 year old son of a less active woman who hasn´t been baptized yet. And all in all sprinting to the finish line!

 

Love you all, and I hope you have a great week!

--Elder Spencer Ellis

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Life at the Lakes

Hello lovely family!!

 

So life here in Lagos is going swell. (I´m pretty sure Lagos interprets as ´lakes´, but I don´t know of any actual lakes nearby. Just lots of beaches...) Anyways, Elder Brown and I have had a good week of hard work. We had some good lessons, and found some people that seem to have some great potential, but we are going to focus more on this week on helping these people to really start progressing and coming to Church. In other words, we´re going to try to work smart as well as work hard, and always follow the Spirit!

 

Everything´s going great though! We´re going to be playing ultimate frisbee as a zone today, so that´ll be fun. And we´ll be careful so as to not have any injuries. Can´t afford to slow down the work! Thanks everyone for your great emails of news and whatnot. Love you all tons! Thanks for all your help in ´cheering me on´ to sprint through the finish line!

 

Hope you all have a great week! Love you tons!

--Elder Spencer Ellis

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2 Lagos 2

Hello wonderful family!

 

Well things are pretty hot in the Algarve, and that is meant in both ways - it is quite hot and one sweats quite a bit wearing dark slacks, white collared shirt and tie, but also we had a great week starting from scratch! From dividing the area with the other elders, we had plenty of people on ex-investigator and potential investigator lists, as well as all the other people from our own contacts and door knocking. And while it is pretty tough with all that work, there is still the adage - "when the going get´s tough, the tough get going!" So it´s great to be working hard with optimistic Elder Brown focusing on finding the elect. It´s rather easy, because the people who don´t want to talk to us won´t talk to us, leaving it easy to tell between the people who are nice and people who are really interested. So... life is great!

 

Happy birthday Rob!! 28 and feeling great, right? Have the best birthday yet!

 

And congratulations to Kit and Kev on lovely baby #4 in the oven!

 

I love hearing from all of you, and hope you all have a great week! Love you tons!

Much love

--Elder Spencer Ellis

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Lagos 2 - Take one

Hello Happy Family!!

Lagos 2 is the official name of the new area that Elder Riley Evan Brown and I are opening up. But from the way we divided up the area with the other Elders (Elder Nair, also from my MTC group, and Elder Noda), we could also go by Lagos East-side (and them Lagos 1 / Lagos West-side)! Maybe we´ll stick with the official stuff. But whatever you call this new area, it is soo great to be back in the field and out of the mission office! YeeeHAW!! My body isn´t quite accustomed to the sudden jolt from being inside with air-conditioned office paper and computer work to being outside in the hot and sunny oven-like asphalt. The worst though was the shock from all the walking instead of driving around in a car - my calves were screaming rebellion until today. Anyways, the point is it´s great to be out working like full-time in-the-field missionaries do! 

Lagos is quite nice. From what I´ve seen in the past few days there isn´t a beach right exactly where we are (just as well) but there are tons of tourists around in beach clothing. The beach and boats are not very far away. We´ve started to get to know our area pretty well, and we´ve gotten a bunch of the potential investigators from the Lagos 1 Elders. We´ve also gotten one investigator who they said is progressing pretty well. He´s a Brazilian man from Espirito Santo, and he came to Sacrament meeting and seemed to enjoy it. Apparently it was his second (or maybe third) time. We´re excited to work with him and keep finding more men and families! Elder Brown is a great guy. Easy-going but really optimistic, ready to work and excited to be here. I´m such a lucky guy with a great companion to train, great elders to share the house (and area) with, and yet another pair of elders to also have in the district! Great stuff! 

Happy Belated Birthday Darrell! Hope you had a good one! 

Much love to/for everyone else, too! Have a great week everybody!

--Elder Spencer Ellis

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Constant Change!!

Helloo Lovely Family!

Well, today is the preparation day right before transfers, and the news of who-is-going-where is causing the typical excitement. Before all that business started though, President Torgan called me into his office and let me know in advance that I will be training an Elder Brown from Farmington Utah (he didn´t say the hometown, but I checked on the board) while opening up a new area in Lagos (down in the Algarve - that´s as beach bottom south of Portugal as you can get) and serving once again as a district leader. Needless to say, I am very very happy and excited for the new area, new companion, and new challenges - not saying anything bad about being a financial secretary with Elder Dias in Amadora. But I´m looking forward to be in the full missionary swing of things!

So, that´s the biggest news. Otherwise, things are looking good for the future of Amadora/Queluz. There is a man from Mozambique in his 30s named Manuel who has come to church the past two Sundays and has really liked everything. He came to the baptismal service of another man who was baptized last Saturday and really liked that too, and everything looks great for him to be baptized in a few weeks.

Should anyone desire to send further mail, please keep sending stuff to the mission office. If anyone needs a reminder, here´s the address:
Elder Spencer Ellis
Missão Portugal Lisboa
1500 Lisboa
PORTUGAL

So how is everybody? John and Laura and kids are all comfy cozy in Provo now, right? What´s new with everyone else? I hope you all have a great week, and I hope to hear from you all soon. Tchau!
--Elder Spencer Ellis

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What kind of name is Azzim? Irish? Culrish? ... Moorish!

Hello happy lovely family! Congratulations to Joy and Darrell for the safe and successful delivery of little Maurie! That´s niece #5 I have yet to meet - can´t wait to see her in person! As hard as it is to beat a new baby being born, I hope everyone else is fit, fine, fantastic, and having a blast! This week went really well - and really fast. Time is flying by, and I´ve gotta get the most of it. Our missionary district has started a tradition of having a street meeting every other week (every week would be ideal but doesn´t always work out) on Saturday mornings. This last Saturday was the turn for the meeting to be in our area, and it turned out great! We received about 22 people total who let us take down their contact information and get back to them, some of them seem very very promising. One of the last people we contacted turned out to be a Brazilian man from Recife, and it was fun to be able to say that I had lived there too! As far as our teaching pool goes, aside from that explosion of references, we´ve started teaching this one lady named Titi (teeTEE) who is super nice and loves learning with us. And Celinho and Vaníce are making progress - it looks like they´re really close to finding a good housing situation soon. Yipikiyay! Haha, and in regards to the quote from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, for our P-Day pleasure today Elder Walker, one of the other office Elders, and myself went to the Moorish Castle in Sintra, and it was quite fun. A lot of other people were there, including from the UK, Germany, probably Spain and Italy and who knows where else! But we still managed to take a lot of cool pictures, but only some of which I´ll include. I was in a meditative mood, you may say. Well, love all of you, and hope you all have a great week! Tchau! --Elder Spencer Ellis NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Great Week!!

Hello lovely family!
Well, this week was indeed big and busy, but it was very enjoyable and edifying, much to my surprise. Just goes to show that as we do our best the Lord will be by our side to help us out! This week was a testimony of that to me.

Last Monday we finished closing a missionary apartment (the elders had moved to a new one in the same city, very close to their chapel). Tuesday I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Elder Teixeira, which was quite uplifting. One thing I particularly enjoyed was his invitation for me to read two or three scriptures from the Topical Guide sections about Jesus Christ. The more I read and study about Him, the more I can focus on Him; the more I can focus on Him, the more I will desire and strive to become like Him, and be of service to others. It´s wonderful stuff, and I invite all of you to commence doing so, if you are not already doing some sort of study.

And throughout the week, despite being so busy - especially on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday - we were able to have a good amount of Spirit-led lessons. The two highlighting fruits of those labors for the week were 1) Edgar Gourgel, an 8 year old (soon to be 9) son of a member family that we´re working on strengthening was baptized and confirmed. He didn´t count as a convert baptism, but I´m sure both member and convert baptisms are valid and of great value to God. 2) Vaníce is now committed to being baptized (and she will count as a convert baptism)! Unfortunately though, we still have the obstacle of her living with her member boyfriend Célio, even though they´ve promised their not breaking the law of chastity. But to follow the Lord´s standards, we want to work on them getting married or living in separate apartments. (That´s still a challenge because Célio is having some family feud problems, isn´t working and doesn´t want help from his parents and a bunch of extended family.) But, as Dad has said and was quoted frequently by Elder and Sister Teixeira, onward and upward!!

So, life is great! Thank you all once again for the news, and especially your thoughts and prayers. Keep them coming, please! I hope everything is well as can be with Joy and lil´ Marguerite coming so close to delivery. Be strong, be well, and be happy! Have a great week, and I love all of you!
--Elder Spencer Ellis

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Hello!!

Hello beloved family!
Another week flown by, and this email reporting for two weeks in one! Sorry I missed last week, but these past two weeks have been the calm before the storm and the breath before the plunge. The storm and plunge I refer to is the fact that this week and next will be very busy. This week we have Elder Teixeira (who was a mission president in São Paulo while I was still around) coming to do a mission tour. He arrives today, there will be a leadership council tomorrow, a tri-zone conference on Wednesday, a typical bi-zone conference on Thursday (typical except for the fact that a Seventy is here), all back to back with organizing materials and lunches, etc etc. During and after said conferences we´ll also have to keep on top of our other financial duties, opening and closing houses, getting money, preparing payments, and monthly filing. Next week will be interviews, meaning the lunch stuff will happen all over again. YAY! "All things shall give thee experience, and be for thy good," right? Maybe all this financial experience is a suggestion from Upstairs saying I should look towards that kind of career? We´ll see soon enough...

Anyways, that was just the teaser for this week that´s starting. What happened the past two weeks included getting a new house for the Amadora elders and getting them moved in; getting a new checkbook; finishing moving the utility deeds to our name for Amadora and another missionary apartment, continue the search for an apartment in Vila Franca de Xira, sending our supply order for the month, updating the financial secretary manual/guide, and focusing on the investigators we´ve felt are closest to being baptized. We also had a cool street meeting by the train/bus station in Amadora with the Amadora and Linda-A-Velha elders.... And I turned 21 years old!! Now I´m completely legal, including being able to rent hotel rooms in the state of Indiana. But I´m not planning on doing anything in Indiana anyways, so no worries. My birthday celebration included lunch at Chili´s in Telheiras and phone calls from President and Sister Torgan and other well-wishing missionaries. Oh, and last Monday we cooked up some fajitas with that seasoning stuff Mom sent, and they (fortunately) turned out delicious! Thank you Mom and Dad!

Thank you everyone for your happy birthday wishes, and the usual awesome emails, prayers, and all other support! Congradz to Mark and Aup with the healthy little boy in the oven! I hope everything is going well with everyone else and their moves, studies, work, babies, and other great things! Love you all, and I hope you have a great week! Tchau!
--Elder Spencer Ellis

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Amadora ... Queluz? Take 4!

Hello happy family!!

Due to the snippets of emails I´ve received, I´m guessing everyone is having a fabulous time at the lodge! (Where this mysterious and fun lodge is, I know not, except it be somewhere in the land of Utah.) Well, the menus looked scrumptuous, and I´m sure the games and other activities will all be very fun... so enjoy! Meanwhile in the land of the Portuguese, things are going well. Elder Dias and I have looked at the office necessities for most of what we´ll need to do in the next 6 weeks, which will include a mission tour from President Teixeira (who was a mission president in São Paulo a few years ago - one of his office elders is in our ward by the way!), with interviews the immediate week after, and the other stuff. Lots of stuff to do! Yipikiyay!

Missionary work wise, we´re pretty excited. Like I said last week, our ward is receiving another pair of elders (who are the zone leaders now), and the area is divided and ready to be conquered - let´s go with converted! (By the Spirit, of course.) Also yesterday, President Torgan came to our ward for church and spoke in sacrament meeting, and told an allegory/story of him and his best friend for eternal life João (John). They were waiting in the pre-mortal existence waiting for their mortal mission calls, and when they got their call packets they found out Pres. Torgan would have the privilege of being born into a family already members of the Church and would be taught the gospel in his youth. João on the other hand was very solemn and anxious when he found in his mission call, he would not have that privilege of being raised in the gospel. João turned to Pres. Torgan and urged him to find him in mortality and bring him all the blessings of true happiness found in the Restored Gospel and Church. Then President Torgan invited the ward members to be diligent and find those Joãos and Marias who are really so dear to us, and need the gospel in their lives too. One member of a big less active family we´ve been working with came up to us after sacrament meeting and pointed to an investigator we´ve been working with (Vaníce) and said ´She´s one of those Marias!´ It´s great to have the members excited and to work with them!

Well, I wish you all the best, and a very fun time, at the lodge or elsewhere. Have a great week! Much love,
--Elder Spencer Ellis

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Hello!

Hello wonderful family!

Well, life is great in Portugal! This is the preparation day before transfers, and there´s a whole lot of stuff going on in the mission, lots of changes, lots of stuff to do. For example, our ward will be receiving another pair of elders (who will be the zone leaders too), so our area will be divided up. That will be great so that there can be a pair of missionaries to work fully in the area instead of being tied down so much with office stuff. Let the work move forward! But among so many changes and with so many missionaries coming in, that means new areas are opening up and Elder Dias and I have to find the houses for them. Looking things up on the internet is good but slow for getting feedback, calling up people/businesses takes a lot of time, and (besides Amadora) the areas are too far away to go house hunting ourselves. But, as Dad said, it´s great to be alive! So, we´re working on that a lot, and doing what we can to work with the members in our ward, especially strengthening the less actives and working with their friends.

Well, love all of you, and I´m happy to hear things are going so well with all of you! Keep going!
Much love,
Elder Spencer Ellis

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Belated

Hello family!

First off, this is late because President Torgan decided to have my zone´s interviews (and the whole meeting that goes with the interviews) yesterday. So since the Preparation Time was sapped, I quickly write ya´ll now to let you know all is well in Portugal!

Always lots to do, especially in the office. The whole last week was interviews with all the zones, so we prepared all the requested materials and supplies, as well as the lunches for some of them. And when we weren´t bogged down with that and other office stuff, we tried meeting with the investigators and less actives with whom we are working. A little bit slow, especially in comparison with how super prepared Fábio was and is, but we´ll keep doing the best we can in helping these people and keeping our eyes out for the elect, as always.

Thanks everyone for your emails, prayers, and support! It really is great to hear from you. I´m really happy that Cosette´s ear infection is gone - yay! Good luck with everything on that end, John and Laura! Joy and Aup, keep being strong for those little babies in the ovens. My prayers are with you, and all of you, for what challenges I know you face and that everything may go according to God´s tender-mercy-filled plan for us. Love all of you, and hope ya´ll have a great week! Tchau!

--Elder Spencer Ellis

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Hello from Portugal!

Hello happy Family!!

Thank you everyone for the news, emails, etc! It really is so amazing that we can keep in touch so quickly, and over thousands of miles too! Everything in Portugal is going great. There´s lots of horns honking, so I guess everyone´s favorite teams are winning in the World Cup. We´ll have to see who makes the noise when Brazil and Portugal play... But on to the better and more important things - I had the honor of baptizing Fábio Daniel de Jesus Grilo on Saturday afternoon. The water heater wasn´t working, and we tried to make do by heating water in big pans in the kitchen, but the water was still a little on the chilly side. But despite that and other tiny obstacles, everything went really well. Elder Dias voiced the confirmation yesterday during sacrament meeting, and a lot of members (besides the mother and daughter that have already supported him a lot) gave him a warm welcome and congratulations.

It doesn´t get much better than that. Now we just need to find more Fábios (seja, the ready and willing elect)! Thanks again everyone for your news, updates, blog posts, and other emails. My prayers will be with little Cosette in particular, but as always with all of you as well. Have a great week!
Much love,
Elder Spencer Ellis

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On the road again!

Hello greatest family in all the world!!

 

How is everybody?? Emails have gotten a bit slack - please read Alma 60:6. Thank you oh ye faithful ones who have continued writing regular (ou seja, weekly), please continue with your weekly correspondences. As for the rest of you, I know ya´ll are busy, but I´m certain you can budget your time to take 10 minutes to write a simple, personal email to your favorite missionary in Portugal. The blogs are great, but personal emails are even greater. And I will respond to every personal email I receive, as best I can with the time that I have.

 

Just kidding! Haha, well, sort of. I don´t really mean to sound stingy at all, but it would be nice to get more personal emails from all of my lovely family! That would even suffice as my birthday present, since I don´t want extra weight in my luggage from sizeable gifts or extra pounds from goodies since I´m getting chubby enough being fed every day by members and not walking it off because driving around in the car. (Oh the car, I´ll get to that soon.) So the birthday list will suffice as such: personal emails/letters for the rest of my mission as much as possible; drink mixes (easy like tang - just add to water); other cool things that will not add to my baggage or personal weight as ya´ll desire. And for all of you with the matchmaking itch, you can pass around this little application too. Lots of laughs ahead... oh, and all mail can be sent to the following address:

 

Missão Portugal Lisboa

Apartado 40054

1500 Lisboa

PORTUGAL

 

Well, hopefully that answers all questions asked or that would be asked in the near future. This week has been great! Driving has been a blast - accident free, stress relieving, and fun! I won´t sign up for drag races just yet, but I´ve driven regularly throughout this past week and am starting to feel confident with stickshift. Yeehaw! Aside from driving and the boring office stuff, things are going great! Fábio is all set to be baptized this Saturday, and if the elder who first started teaching him about a year ago can´t come up from the Alentejo to baptize him, then I will have the honor of baptizing him. Hard to beat that good news! Other people are coming along, and it is a great joy to help people obtain and strengthen testimonies of the restored gospel and act on those testimonies to receive true conversion. Life is great! Such persons are a young woman named Veníce who is humble and eager to learn, and she has the great support of the huge Gourel family, some of which are stalwart members, others can use a boost. We´re also working with the family of an Elder Barbosa who is serving in this mission, and his mom and a sister aren´t baptized yet, and the others need to be reactivated, and we´re happy to help!

 

Well, that´s all the news for now, I guess. Have a great week everybody! I´m looking forward to hearing from all of you! Much love,

--Elder Spencer Ellis

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Great things are happening to me...

Hello beloved family!

 

Well, thanks everyone for your emails, updates, and news. I´m happy to hear everyone´s doing great! And things are going great in Amadora as well! To get everyone on their toes - especially Mom - and maybe on their knees for praying more, I´ve started driving! Bring on the Portuguese road rage, muahaha! Just kidding. I got my Portuguese license on Saturday, and have driven three our four times and all is well. Thanks for all your prayers so far, and I´ll go ahead and thank you in advance for the rapid increase in prayers that no accidents occur. The only thing that is a real bummer about it all is that I had to exchange my Texas driver´s license for it, and I´ll never see that piece of plastic again. On the bright side (if driving and getting stick under my belt wasn´t enough) this Portuguese driver´s license will be good for 30 years or more, so we can start planning family reunions to Europe where I can be the legally licensed driver for all of the European Union! So I´ll just have to make a trip to Texas sometime and get another driver´s license there.

 

And even better than driving, is planning for baptisms! When we met with Fábio on Saturday he told us he had prayed (he´s such a stud, praying always) and had decided to be baptized on Saturday June 19!! Our ward mission leader was helping with that lesson and we started planning out the next two weeks of when to get certain things done, like trying on the baptismal clothes, filling out the baptismal form, having the baptismal interview, etc. Thank you all for your prayers in Fábio´s behalf, and I thank God for the tender mercies He is pouring out on us. Aside from working with Fábio, there´s this huge (said just like Natalie and Rachel love to say it) African family (Família Gourgel) that range from steady faithful to dwindling less active, and in working with them they introduced us to a friend of theirs, a young woman of 24 named Veníce who has wanted to be taught. We visited with her Friday and Sunday (she also came to church with some of the Gourgel family), and everything´s going great with teaching her from the beginning and helping out the less active members of the Gourgel family. So far she´s really receptive and we have hopes she´ll be ready for baptism soon.

 

I love and pray for all of you and hope you have a great week! Much love,

--Elder Spencer Ellis

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Stress... It´s a killer, sir!

Hello greatest family in all the world!

 

This past week has been quite eventful, let me tell you! But since I can´t tell you everything, I will suffice to say that Elder Bennett was peacefully transferred to my former area Caldas da Rainha, and Elder Dias (from Braga, Portugal by the way) and I have been getting lots of things done! I´ve felt pretty stressed out - hence the Anastasia quote - but ´I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me´!

 

Elder Dias is a great companion. He´s really been picking up on my slack and taken the initiative on a lot of things. So we´re doing our hardest to be the most effective we can be in getting the office junk - I mean, stuff - done properly, and then get out and work. And we´ve already been blessed for our efforts. We´ve found some new people (especially a family that looks promising), and have been making progress with others, especially Fábio, who is prayerfully deciding his baptismal date for this coming weekend or next (depending on how his schedule with finals turns out), and a part member family, reactivating the inactive kids and teaching the mom and getting them to church. Life is great!

 

Congratulations to Kelly and Pattie! Can´t wait to see (and meet) you all in good time! I hope everyone else is doing great, especially Joy and Aup and their little munchkins in the ovens. Hope to hear more great news from all of you, and have a great week! Much love,

--Elder Spencer Ellis

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Constant Changes

Hello beloved family!

 

Well, great to know where Mom and Dad are moving to! Centerville... sounds like fun! Well, lots of things have happened this last week, and we´re getting news of all the transfer happenings. One of those is Elder Bennett will be transferred to Caldas da Rainha - one of my previous areas! - and Elder Francisco Xavier Matos Dias (Elder Dias is wonderfully simpler) will be my new companion and fellow financial secretary. I finally get to serve with a native!

 

Anyways, on to what happened this past week. Last Monday night we had a lesson with a man who had gone by the church the previous Friday wanting English lessons. We weren´t at the church, but the members there took down his name and phone number and we called him up later and set up an appointment. So, back to Monday, we made it to his apartment and met him and his wife. She´s quite the evangelical, but very nice, and he seems to remember a lot of what missionaries had previously taught him while he was also having English lessons. Cool stuff, and we´re looking forward to working with them.

 

On Wednesday President Torgan rode back with us (Elder Bennett, myself, the executive secretaries, and the assistants) from our lunch out, and he mentioned how his favorite soccer team in Belém had moved to the second division. I forgot what that meant, and in an attempt to be conversational and polite I had said ´oh, that´s good...´ but he said, ´No, it´s not! They moved down!´ Oops! But then he continued, `Don´t worry, they´ll beat everyone in the second division and move back up soon.´ My reply slipped off my tongue rather too quickly. `What, just to move right back down again?´ Haha, he seemed surprised that such a comment had come from quiet soft-spoken me, and finally gave me a semi-hurt look and said ´Oh Elder Ellis, what´s all this shooting down my team for?` Good times. I myself am still a São Paulo and Sporte fan!

 

But the best news of all is that Fábio´s out of his rut! We had been praying a lot for him, and he had been praying a lot too, and his opportune moment to talk to his parents about investigating the Church and being baptized finally came - ironically during the Pope´s visit to Portugal. Apparently the Pope said something that his parents didn´t like that much, or something or other, and he took that opportunity to relate with them that he didn´t think it was fair having to ´stay´ Catholic just because he was born to his Catholic parents, and told them he was investigating and felt good about another Church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and they gave their permission to continue and be baptized! God answers prayers! So Fábio finally made it to Church, and since he is so elect he came with dress shoes, slacks, white shirt, and tie, everyone thought he was already a member. We´ll wrap up the finishing teaching touches and pray with and for him to know when - how soon - he should be baptized.

 

Well, glad to hear everyone is preparing for another fun family reunion, and all the other details that I hear. Have a great week! Much love,

--Elder Spencer Ellis

PS - Happy Belated Birthdays to Mom and Kit! Hope they were the greatest with the best yet to come!

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Already halfway through May?!

Hello happy family!!

 

Sounds like it´s been a good week for everyone, from what I´ve heard. Happy (belated) Birthday to Uncle Charlie, and Happy (early) Birthdays to Mama KK and Kit! Time keeps flying faster and faster, huh? Mark and Aup - glad to hear everything is ok with Tearisa, especially after that ´hot seat´ experience.

 

I don´t know if I told this bit of news, but a few weeks ago I saw Elder Scott Braithwaite - he stayed the night with us a week or two ago because he had to be in Lisbon to renew his visa. It was cool to see him, and he seems to be doing great!

 

Anyways, this week´s gone pretty well. Most of the zones´ interviews were this week, except mine - we´ll be having our interviews on Tuesday/tomorrow. We had some good visits with the less actives that we´re working with, and we finally were able to meet with the bishopric about working with the ward more, especially with that family plan. Fábio´s still coming along, but hasn´t talked to his parents yet nor come to church, unfortunately. Friday night we had a dinner with a huge African family who has an 8 year old that hasn´t been baptized yet and they want us to teach him, just like with Filipa Torrão several weeks ago. We haven´t been able to start teaching him because the family is always so busy, but while we were there and finishing up dinner he was there and asked if we could teach him really quick. Kids are awesome! To paint the scene, it´s a rather chaotic apartment since a bunch of the relatives are always coming in and out. This time Teddy (the 8 year old) and some of his older siblings were there talking to us while we ate, and when Teddy asked if we could teach him just his 16 year old sister was there and asked if she could stay. She seemed to enjoy hearing about the Restoration again, and really chimed in when we mentioned James 1:5. When we finished the lesson she asked us about if she should still give a talk on Sunday, because she didn´t like the idea of speaking in public (no one does I think) and she felt a little embarrassed about giving a talk when she had missed the previous couple of Sundays being at Church. So we encouraged her to come and give the talk, because that´s what she should do, and she came and gave the talk and everything went fine.

 

The coolest thing happened yesterday at Church! When Elder Bennett and I arrived and walked into the Elder´s Quorum lesson, Osvaldo was there! Osvaldo was the African father I met and taught in Seixal, and he was baptized shortly after I left! Turns out he´s moving into the Amadora ward! Not that I´ve been depressed or anything, but that was a definite pick-me-up, and a tender mercy from the Lord!

 

Well, I hope to hear more from ya´ll soon! Have a great week everybody! Much love,

--Elder Spencer Ellis

 

 

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Already halfway through May?!

Hello happy family!!

 

Sounds like it´s been a good week for everyone, from what I´ve heard. Happy (belated) Birthday to Uncle Charlie, and Happy (early) Birthdays to Mama KK and Kit! Time keeps flying faster and faster, huh? Mark and Aup - glad to hear everything is ok with Tearisa, especially after that ´hot seat´ experience.

 

Well this week´s gone pretty well. Most of the zones´ interviews were this week, except mine - we´ll be having our interviews on Tuesday. We had some good visits with the less actives that we´re working with, and we finally were able to meet with the bishopric about working with the ward more, especially with that family plan. Fábio´s still coming along, but hasn´t talked to his parents yet nor come to church, unfortunately. Friday night we had a dinner with a huge African family who has an 8 year old that hasn´t been baptized yet and they want us to teach him, just like with Filipa Torrão several weeks ago. We haven´t been able to start teaching him because the family is always so busy, but while we were there and finishing up dinner he was there and asked if we could teach him really quick. Kids are awesome! To paint the scene, it´s a rather chaotic apartment since a bunch of the relatives are always coming in and out. This time Teddy (the 8 year old) and some of his older siblings were there talking to us while we ate, and when Teddy asked if we could teach him just his 16 year old sister was there and asked if she could stay. She seemed to enjoy hearing about the Restoration again, and really chimed in with James 1:5. When we finished the lesson she asked us about if she should still give a talk on Sunday

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Happy Mother´s Day!

Happy (belated) Mother´s Day to all you wonderful mothers out there! Grandma Turtle, Mama KK, Joy, Kit, Nat, Aup, and Laura! And soon enough, Christa, Rachel, and Emily!! Em, you´ve got more time on your hands, so no rush. And Rachel´s stil hubby-hunting... Anyways, I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother´s Day! I really enjoyed the phone call talking to Mom, Dad, Rae, and Em, to hear their voices one more time. Thanks again for the news, and the great advice like what to do with Fábio. We´ll make plans and get to work on talking to his parents.

 

Well, aside from that lovely phone call, the week went very well too! To fill everyone else in, Fábio´s coming along great, and is accepting everything, but hasn´t made it to church because his parent´s don´t like him being taught very much. He could use a nudge into talking to his parents about it, but we´re teaching and inviting him to move forward with faith, and it´s up to him in that regard. But we will keep trying to meet with and directly talk to them ourselves so we can invite them to be taught also, or at the very least let Fábio continue without any hassle.

 

Last week a young man came to church who had been baptized 3 years ago and had gone inactive, but he made it to church again yesterday which was great, and was able to meet with us to talk more right after church. His name is Jalou and is a great guy. We planned to go by another inactive to walk with her to church, but when we called to check if we could still come by she said she was sick with the flu, but we could pick up her son Pedro and walk with him to church. It took a bit longer than we thought, since walking is slower than driving, and we don´t know our way around as well by foot (especially without our gps), but we made it to church just fine and Pedro really liked it. He´s 9 years old and hit it off well with the other primary kids.

 

Well, other than that, everything is coming along well! I´m very happy for Mark and Aup that little squirt #2 is still kicking! Yay!! How is everyone else doing? Hope everyone has a great week! Much love,

--Elder Spencer Ellis

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Life in Amadora continues...

Hello lovely family!

 

Well, glad to hear Zach made it home honorably, safe, and sound. Parabéns! Keep it goin Mic and Dave!

This week has gone well. We had zone conference(s), which kept us busy enough, but still managed to teach Fábio a bit. He´s really golden, and the only challenge we´re having is that his parents are kind of keeping him from coming to Church on Sunday. That family that was a reference is nice. We visited with them again Sunday evening and focused on the purpose of the Book of Mormon (to testify of Christ) and reading as well as praying about it to receive an answer.

 

Sunday was very nice. At fast and testimony meeting there was a young man named Jalou who was baptized about 3 years ago and and become less active, but seemed to really enjoy everything at church again. He was the last to bear his testimony but he seems ready to come back. So we´re gonna pass by him this week and keep helping him, and hopefully he´ll also have some family and friends who are ready for the gospel as well.

 

Well, I hope everything keeps going well for Joy, and that Aup´s new munchkin in the oven can make it as well. And I love all of you, and hope ya´ll have a great week! Much love,

 

--Elder Spencer Ellis

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Life is great!

Hello Happy Family!

 

Mom!! I got your 2nd Easter package, the one you sent around April 16, so no worries! If the first one doesn´t arrive, and if it was stolen, I hope whoever stole it enjoyed the big Brazilian chocolate Easter eggs. I guess I can´t get mad at the person, at least he/she´s got good tastes!

 

Well this week went great, despite some frustrating things. Fábio is great, he already seems to know everything (he´s been semi-taught by his member friends for around 3 years) and has been coming along great. Unfortunately he didn´t make it to church yesterday because of family visiting, and them not being supportive at all on top of that, but we´ll work that out in our next lesson. Sadly, Benvindo dropped himself. In our last visit with him this past week, he was still completely polite, and even said how he knew the church was true and that accepting baptism is what God wants him to do, but he wants to choose the path he´s on, knowing it is the wrong path. My prayers are still with him.

 

We got a lot of references (14) passed to us from the executive secretaries, and were able to contact 6 of them. Whether they were a build-up count over several weeks before the execs gave them to us, or a blitz of references, it´s great stuff! One we taught Saturday night, named José Pedro, and his wife, brother, and (oldest daughter) listened to us, and asked good questions later. The brother (unique name that I can´t remember right now) asked a lot, and it was great to see some people who were really studying the gospel themselves. When I mentioned and started turning to James 1:5 they all whipped out their own Bibles and turned to it on their own - that´s never happened before on my mission! So finding interested people, and a family on top of that, is great stuff!

 

Now the things to laugh about. Two Cape Verdian Elders stayed with us for two or three nights, because they had to renew their visas before going to the Azores (lucky ducks). One of them, Elder Duarte, is really funny with the bit of English he knows, and aside from that he´ll just say lots of funny things with his Cape Verdian accent. After he had already seen how stressful the office can be, Elder Bennett told him we were going to put his name on the list for President to consider as office elders, and he said, `Oh, if you do that, I´ll find your address [after the mission], write it on a big envelope and send a bomb to your house!´ Anyways, we practiced driving again at that abandonded parking lot this week, twice, and we went with the execs both times. The first time went fine. The second time when we pulled into the lot, we noticed further up the road a big police checkpoint was being set up. After about 5 minutes or less of me practicing around we saw a group of 6 to 8 police officers signaling us with their flashlights and whistles to stop. They come over and ask for license and registration, and we give them the car insurance and other stuff necessary, and explain that I did not yet have my Portuguese driver´s license, and I was practicing around to learn stickshift. They told us to get out of the car, and even to ´keep our hands visible´, and asked more questions which just led us to explain further that Elders Bennett and Craig had their licenses and had driven here, not unlicensed me. So after a few minutes of silly lecturing, they said Elder Bennett and I would wait with them while Elders Craig and Bryant would go to the office and get my Texas driver´s license (which they had taken from me so they could get it ready to exchange for a Portuguese one). The other police officers seemed to not be worried at all after finding out we were missionaries, which was good since some of them had big shotguns. (Smile and wave boys, cute and cuddly...) So Elder Bennett and I walk over with them to their checkpoint spot and keep talking to two of the officers, which turned into more of a contact than any kind of ´detainment´. Haha, one of them had eyed our nametags and said ´Hey, I have a question...´ and I guessed right ´... why are we all named Elder?´ (Helder is actually a name in Portuguese and sounds exactly the same.) He smiled and asked ´Yeah, why is that?` (I guessed because that has to be one of, if not the most frequently asked secular questions for Portuguese speaking missionaries.) Anyways, we talked with them about how we´re here for two years straight to talk to people about how families can be together forever because of Jesus Christ´s sacrifice for us, and left them with pass-along cards. I think I´ll like police officers a lot more if I contact them from now on! Not that I intend to get pulled over or anything, but hey, it´s a good way to get their attention, right? Muahaha...

 

Well, that´s about it for this week. I love all of you! Have a great week! Tchau,

--Elder Spencer Ellis

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Awesome blossom!

Hello beloved family!

 

Well, good to hear Zach will be making it home safe and sound soon. But (still focusing), it´s also great to hear the news from everyone else! Infelizmente, still no package(s), but this week, for sure, they/it should come. However, the idea of not reporting the arrival of the packages to motivate ya´ll to send even more is quite a temptation. But don´t worry, I´m still honest. (Blast!)

 

This week has gone great! A week from yesterday was when we told the ward leadership about that Family Plan of watching those videos about eternal families and stuff, and one of the sisters, the young women´s leader (I think), called us up very soon after (that Sunday night I think) and scheduled a family home evening with us and a friend. His name is Fábio, he´s a really nice 18 year old young man, and has wanted to be taught the lessons for quite some time (around 3 years?) but his familiy hadn´t wanted him to. So now he´s 18 and wants to be taught whether they want to or not, (sorry for the rhyming,) and pretty much said he wanted to be baptized. Working with members bringing in the truly elect/ready - the way it´s supposed to be, and I love it! It was really funny because Benvindo had come, with his brother Mário and a friend named Zé. Every time we´ve been with them Mário always gets on Benvindo´s case, calling him a bum who won´t do anything with his life if he doesn´t man up and be baptized, even though he himself isn´t interested in joining the Church. (He´s said ´a church is just a building, it´s the people that count´, not all that into organized religion and stuff.) And Benvindo was blown away at the sheer willingness of Fábio. He was saying `Oh man, it´s really hard, I´ll let you know, but I have so much respect for you for having the courage to do what I can´t. I´m honored, please, shake my hand!´ We had another lesson with just Fábio and that member family (Manuela Cintrão is the mom & young women´s leader, her 13/14 year old daughter is named Joana) on Saturday. Fábio wasn´t able to make it to church because he had relatives visiting, but we marked our next appointment for Wednesday. Man, inspiration is great stuff! Keep it coming, Pres. Torgan! And the Men upstairs...

 

Well, nothing really beats that bit of news. This past week was transfers, kind of helping the departing missionaries on their way, and a lot of welcoming the greenies and training them on how to use the Lord´s funds wisely. I love recalling Bishop Flake´s summary, ´don´t do stupid things´. (That was him, right?) With transfers, I´m still here as a financial secretary with Elder Bennett, and the new executive secretary elder is an Elder Bryant from Conroe, TX. Great to have some more Texans, even though now the other elders tease me about being a Utahn now. Anyways, other than that is the same old helping missionaries out with their house-stuff and other needs, etc etc. Hope everyone has a great week! Love all of you!

 

--Elder Spencer Ellis

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Speechless

Hello dearest family! ... Wow! I was honestly shocked when I read Mom and Dad´s news about moving to SLC. Some questions - what does Curriculum Department and Boundaries Commitee mean, and/or deal with? What will your new housing situation be? I could have sworn I had a dozen questions running through my head when I read the news - such as why?? - but where the Lord sends, we go, right? Right. A gold star to Mark and Aup for the hilarious email/post. One clarification - I have never had nor will ever have any inner struggles of confusion about the World Cup. Brazil has 5 titles, and that´s all I will say since I should not open up such a can of contentious worms as a full time missionary... or any kind of disciple of Christ for that matter. Loves!

 

So, this week has gone well. (I´ve decided to be more descriptive this week.) Rachel´s letters to Elder McFarren and myself finally arrived last Tuesday (muahaha!) but I was somewhat disappointed as I was expecting other letters as well from Mom, Dad, Em, Joy, Darrell, and the boys. But life goes on. Elder Bennett was very ill on Thursday - throwing up and diarrhea all day - and later that night President Torgan directed us to go to the hospital to check with a doctor. We expected it to be a long stay - like an over nighter or two - but he started mending up and we were released and got back home at around 2 in the morning. Amazing what an IV pumping medicine into your system and rest will do in such a few hours. Proselyting wise, a tad slow, but we´ve finally been able to announce the new family plan thing that President Torgan wants us to be doing to the ward leadership today. This new family mission plan consists of having a calendar of 3 Family Nights a week with different member families wherein they invite nonmember families to come. We watch the short video Finding Happiness and a clip from the Together Forever dvd (the one of the parents talking about how their daughter died but can have hope and joy knowing that death won´t separate a family sealed in the temple that keeps their covenants), talk a bit more about the importance of families, and see where it goes from there. One sister in the ward has already set up a family night for Wednesday. I´m excited!

 

Other news... we found out we´re getting a senior missionary couple who will arrive in August, and they´re ´office specialists´, somehow meaning they´ll be working in the office. I have no idea how that´ll divi up who gets what office responsibilities, but we´ll see down the road. Well, that´s it for this week. Love all of you, and I hope ya´ll have a great week!

--Elder Spencer Ellis

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not so fast said slow...

Hey beloved family! Glad to hear everyone is doing so well! Thanks for the news and such. General Conference was awesome! I never leave disappointed, although since that seemed to be a very family/parenting-focused conference, I will enjoy it all even more when I´m married with a family of my own. Pois. Everything is going well. Office is slow, and other things, but I haven´t snapped yet, and this too will pass. Pres. Uchtdorf´s talk was very applicable, especially since Waite really is my middle name! Just wait, but still do everything we can and should, the best we can. But on the bright side, I´m getting the hang of more and more things. And we´re ready to get out of the office and work with the members, especially applying President Torgan´s ´Family Plan´ at such a timely opportune moment after that family oriented conference. Coincidence? Nah. I love all of you, and hope ya´ll have a great week! Tchau!

--Elder Spencer Ellis

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Escapé... funny, that´s spelt the same way as escape!

Hello Beloved Family!!

 

No, I do not want any kind of escape from mission office drudgery. Just the beaurocracy (sp?) of Portugal.

What shirts were Mom talking about?

CONGRADZ to Joy and Darrell for having a girl! In process, anyway. Now those four great boys you have can be even greater as older brothers to a baby sister.

Thanks everyone for the updates, blog pictures & news, and everything. Elder Mateer, one of the executive secretaries, is Scottish, and I was happy to tell him that I have an uncle and aunt in Scotland but was slightly abashed not knowing the specific location. Thanks Rob and Christa!

 

So life in the office is fine. Pretty good. Ok. Could be worse... frequent headaches and beaurocracy holdups are indeed frustrating, but in the strength of the Lord I can do ALL THINGS!! The happy place / silver lining is getting out and really being a missionary! We found two new investigators last Monday, one of which was a reference of other missionaries. Stélvio (said reference) had moved into our area, and is a good guy. Gildur, his friend who was there Monday night, also liked to talk, but we might need to get his information since with our follow up visit he wasn´t at Stélvio´s house. Could be that he lives there and just wasn´t home, but we´ll double check next time. Benvindo hasn´t changed yet - still wants to get baptized and knows this stuff is true, but wants to wait so he won´t mess up somehow and bring greater condemnation upon himself. In other ecclesiastical news, Isabel, a recent convert who I interviewed for baptism, is awesome, wants to serve a mission, and is praying about her family, friends, and acquaintences that are ready to accept the gospel. Team success: Holy Ghost (team captain), members (life-blood of the team), and full time missionaries (offense... in a good spiritual way). Well, that´s all the bit of news I´ve got. Much love!

--Elder Spencer Ellis

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Hello!

Hello beloved family!

 

Well, everything´s going pretty well in the office, and with the missionary work we still get to do outside of the office. No driving problems yet, since I´m still waiting for the Portuguese driver´s license - which will look really cool, by the way. This really awesome member family has wanted us to teach the lessons to their adorable and very energetic daughter Filipa who will be baptized this Saturday. She´s still 8 and will not count as a convert baptism, so I guess the members want it to have a bit more ´official sense´ by being taught by us full time missionaries. But oh well, it´s good to serve the members, and we´ll be asking for references soon. Other than that, everything is ... dandy. Today we went with the exec secretaries and the assistants and played around, tossed the frisbee and kicked the soccer ball around. But no ultimate frisbee or soccer games, infelizmente.

 

So with Benvindo´s plight - we´re not dropping him (leaving him/not teaching him), because he still wants to be baptized. What is ya´ll´s advice for him specifically? Is it so bad to wait til his birthday in May? I´m still convinced he should be baptized asap, and we´ve been talking about doing the Lord´s will instead of ours, and when we do we´ll gain the help we need to resist further temptation... any other ideas? (Thanks Kit for the input on how if we don´t hearken to promptings we won´t receive them as much later on.) But anyways, since Benvindo is kind of putting off baptism, we do want to focus on finding those who are ready to go. Thanks again everyone for your great emails and blog posts. Have a great week! Much love,

--Elder Spencer Ellis

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Hello Family!

 

Our baptism fell through this last Saturday because Benvindo wants to be baptized in May, close to his birthday, and still has a lot of anxiety over messing up after baptism and receiving the ´greater condemnation´. Despite our explanations and bearing of our testimonies, and praying with him and us all feeling the Spirit, he knowingly said he wants to do it ´his way´ instead of the Lord´s way (sooner than later). Very sad, but nothing else we could do. He came to church and is still meeting with us and wants to be baptized, in May, so I guess things are ok for now. We´re going to try to help him be baptized sooner, but also keep working with the members to find, teach, and baptize those who are ready to go - now.

 

Well I hope everyone in Brazil is having a fun time! Office life is fine. Don´t worry, I haven´t driven at all since that time a week or two ago. We´re largely waiting for my Portuguese driver´s license to come through. Then the fun will begin... I´m getting the hang of the financial things, slowly but surely. Other than that, life is great! Have a great week everybody! Much love,

--Elder Spencer Ellis

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Office life...

Hello Beloved Family!!

Congradulations to Rachel for finishing her great mission of full time service! Love you, Rae!

Well, life in the office is interesting. I´m learning as I go, and I´m getting the general ideas of most things. But all in all I´ll follow Mom and Dad´s simple advice: get it all done as it is supposed to, and keep working as a missionary! Speaking of the real work, the ward of Amadora/Queluz is great! Big, strong, interactive, lots of support for us via dinners and accompanied lessons, and we´ve got some investigators really coming along. One is named Benvindo (welcome!) who is marked for next weekend. He could´ve been baptized a good while ago but has fear/anxiety about getting baptized and then messing up, stuff like that. We shared David vs Goliath last night, and we´re gonna keep focusing with him on moving forward with faith, and ´power, and love, and a sound mind´. Thanks everyone for the great emails. Once again, all snail mail and packages can be sent to the mission office, since that´s where I am! [Rua Jorge Barradas --------PORTUGAL] Well I love all ya´ll, and hope you all have a great week! Tchau!

--Elder Spencer Ellis

Goodbye Linda-A-Velha!

Hello dear family!

Rafael Carvalhaço Piçarra Monteiro was baptized this last Saturday! It went great - his mom and little sister came and enjoyed it, as well as Ricardo (Rafael´s girlfriend´s sister´s boyfriend). Members came and gave support, and after the service was done almost all of them personally congratulated Rafael with handshakes, abraços, beijinhos, etc. Life is great! And on that happy note I will be leaving this great area of Linda-A-Velha. President Torgan was at church and told me that I will be transferred to Amadora and serve as one of the financial secretaries. So close to here - just north and still in the same district in fact - and yet I´ll be in the office, learning to drive stick (!!) and handling the mission´s finances. I thank you for the many prayers already offered in my behalf, but I certainly ask for more - especially with learning stick in Portugal!

Quite the bit of news. Keep going Rachel, and sprint to the finish! You´re awesome! Also, this email - is the new and improved email account where you may now direct all the many cool personal emails and news blogs/updates. Yippee! Thanks Mom and Dad and Em for the package. I´m doing what you said and eating lots of vegetables, mainly chocolate. (Sugar cane, a vegetable, and caucau bean, also a vegetable, are combined to make the supreme vegetable called chocolate!) And that package was almost nothing but chocolate, so thanks for helping me have a healthy diet! ;) Just kidding, I´m eating sweets in moderation and truly healthy things in abundance. So, thanks again and I hope ya´ll have a great week!

--Elder Spencer Ellis

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Happy days!

Hey everybody!

Glad to hear Matt, Nat, and kids had such a fun time in São Paulo! The kids didn´t like fresh squeezed OJ?? Oh well, I didn´t either as a kid, but I grew up, at least a little bit. And congradz to Clay and Kim! I didn´t see all the pics but it looks like everything went great!

Speaking of great -- great news! Rafael is going to be baptized this Saturday! Thank you all for the prayers that were offered. The work is moving forward! I´ll give more details next week when it´s all a done deal. But the Lord has been blessing us as we apply ourselves to working hard, focusing on the right things that matter, and seeking His will. Thanks again for your support, love, news, and prayers. Tchau!
--Elder Ellis V

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Hello!

Hello Happy Family!

I was very tempted in that last email to say that I my legs had been mauled off by a pack of Açorian pirate dogs that had made it to the mainland on a crazy rampage, or something silly, but I resisted temptation, boring old me. Thanks again for the emails! I´m glad Mom, Dad, and Em in São Paulo will have a fun time with Matt, Natalie & kids. And I´m also happy Kev´s ankle surgery went well. (How are the rest of ya´ll?)

Just to give ya´ll a heads up, there´s some thing going on with the myldsmail accounts being renewed, so if there are any mess ups it´ll probably be because of that. In the meantime, keep sending your awesome emails to this email and everything should work out fine.

So this week went well. I already told ya´ll about the zone activity the zone leaders planned, which was cool. Multiple uses of the word there - it was fun, and ridiculously cold with the wind and rain. But all is well! Elder McFarren and I are doing what we can, and we are being blessed with the progress of Rafael. He´s the boyfriend of a less-active girl and he´s coming along great. Yesterday he was actually the driving force to get him, his girlfriend and her older sister and younger brother to church, and we invited him to pray about being baptized on the 27th of this month, and he said he would. I love the gospel!

So everything is going well. I´m looking forward to that Valentine´s package from Mom (and any others that might be sent as well). Thanks for your prayers and support! (Specifically, if you could pray for Rafael´s continued progress and that Elder McFarren and I can find the ready elect, I thank you very much!) Well, I love all of you! Have a great week! Tchau!

--Elder Ellis

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No need to fear...

...Elder Ellis V is still here! Well it seemed only Mom and Dad seemed to miss me, but don´t worry, I´ll still send this to all ya´ll. But seriously, I apologize for slacking on the past two Mondays. If I was irresponsible, I´d blame the zone leaders, but since I´m not, I won´t.

Since I missed not one but two email sessions I asked President Torgan to let me let ya´ll know that I´m ok. Monday February first the zone leaders (Elder Perkes from my MTC group and Elder Nixon whose family lived in São Paulo also) came to LAV to play Settlers (Elder Nixon´s got it in Portuguese). Due to complications which I will skip over, only the zone leaders were able to do their internet and Elder McFarren and did not have time to so do. And this past Monday, February 8, the zone leaders had planned this ´surprise´ zone P Day activity to go to the dedicatory site in Sintra, but things didn´t work out so well, and with cold wind and rain coming down on us along with public transportation and other fiascinhos, we didn´t make it back to our area till after 7, again leaving no time for internet. So don´t worry lovely family! All is well with your favorite Elder Ellis in Portugal!

So life is great and the work is moving on! We got a list of part member families from the bishopric last night and we´re excited to try working with them, as well as passing by the other less actives the bishopric has given us. Other than that, we´re trying to find and focus on the elect. Cadu needs help finding his answer and own desire to be baptized, and Rafael (boyfriend of a less active who´s coming back) is nice and interested and coming along. Thank you for your past and continuing prayers! And thanks also for the pictures and updates. Sorry about Kev´s ankle. Happy Birthdays to Christa and Ethan! Dad and Em - I got the letters ya´ll wrote around the 18/21 of January - thanks! I love all ya´ll and hope you have a great rest of the week! Love,

--Elder Ellis V

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LAV Round 3!!!

Hello beloved family! Don´t worry, you may all continue to send your mailing items to the Algés address, because Elder McFarren and I are staying here for at least another 6 weeks! Unless of course you´d rather mail stuff to the mission office, which works out fine anyway. So! Thanks everyone for the emails - the blog update thing was a terrific idea. (Thank you Aup, since I think it was your idea!) Happy belated birthdays to Mic, Natalie and Tearisa! I hope you all (plus Dad) had great birthdays!

Life is great! We´re working with these two young men, Paulo (20) and Cadu (17) and they are coming along. Paulo got a ride from the bishop and came in his own suit - quite a snazzy one too! - and was very well greeted by the members. He´s very accepting and loves meeting everybody and learning about the restored gospel! We plan to mark him this week for baptism and are praying for God´s continual help and guidance!

Thanks again for all the news, pictures, and prayers. I´m happy Mom made it home safely! Thanks for the Liahona article about Paulo walking 25 miles to church. Hopefully that story can inspire some of the people here. Love you all and I hope you have a great week! Tchau!
--Elder Ellis V

ps - my prayers will be with Zach, I hope everything works out with that growth thing. Godspeed!

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Hello from LAV!

Hello beloved family! It´s been great to see the pictures and read the news from the blogs - fabulous! I´ll be happy to see the nieces I have yet to meet, when the time comes. (And man oh man is time flying by!!) Thanks Mom and Dad for the letters (notes on the visit from Pres. Eyring & Company and the quote from Pres. Uchtdorf) I just got them today! And Happy Birthday (early wishes) to Dad, the great Papa Stan! Happy belateds to Sam and Caity, and if anyone could say Happy Birthday to Sterling Mann, I´d appreciate it.

Well life is great. Elder McFarren and I had a boost this past week and have gotten on the ball with teaching lessons, working with investigators, and finding new ready people! And there´s this kid named Cadu -- Em, someone you should write, hint hint -- who turns 17 (the same day as Dad!) who is really coming along great. He´s a great kid with a desire to learn and do! Yay! And it´s always fun to find new people - talking to people on the street, or them talking to us, less active members´ friends - always a treat!

Well transfers are this week, and so far we´ve heard nothing and I think we´re both staying, but that´ll be confirmed in next week´s email. I hope everyone has a great week! Thanks again everyone for the news and well wishes! I love all of you and wish you the best - especially Dad on his special day! Have a great one! Much love,
--Elder Ellis

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Hello!

Hey there family!

Sorry Mark and Aup. But God´s in control, and all things will give us experience and be for our good! I love you! And thanks for the present! Rob and Christa delivered it safe. The shirt cracked me up, and the sweets were great! Mentioning Rob and Christa (the Great Dalmuti and Dalmuta), we had a fun time going to Sintra, seeing some of the sights there, and the Bishop and his wife treated us to dinner and a family night Monday evening. Thanks for the great visit Rob and Christa!

This week has gone well and flown by! Ricardo Vinhais has shown interest and we´ve started to teach him, and last night Bruno finally participated in the lesson again, so we´re grateful that they are listening! And passing by other people, working with members, and finding new ones are all making life enjoyable! Wednesday we had interviews and I´m grateful to have President Torgan as a great mission leader. And I just need to keep up with all the many blessings I´m receiving!

Since Rachel requested, I´m throwing in my mailing address --
Avenida Bombeiros Voluntários de Algés
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Algés 1495
PORTUGAL OR you can send to the mission office --

--------------
1500 Lisboa
PORTUGAL

Thanks again for the news and everything! My prayers are with you all! Much love,
--Elder Ellis V

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Happy New Year!

Hello everyone!! Happy New Year! What´s this I read about Mark and Aup expecting baby #2?? CONGRADZ!! Looked like ya´ll had a very fun Christmas!

Well the Lord is blessing this part of His vinyard. Saturday Mário Jorge da Cruz Vinhais (he goes by Jorge) was baptized! He had finally given up smoking a few weeks ago, and has joined his wife and daughter as members of the Church. Now I pray that his two sons, Bruno and Ricardo, can be further prepared by the Lord and have their hearts softened to accept and live the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Well, hard to beat that news, but another great treat was to have Rob and Christa pull a surprise visit at Church! Just by looking everyone seemed to already tell that we were brothers, like I´ve never heard that before! :D But it was a pleasant surprise, and a great blessing to have Rob´s help in teaching Sunday evening. Thank you Rob and Christa! (Although it´s not over yet, because we´ll probably go to Sintra for most of Preparation Day.)

Well I hope everyone is doing great. I´m very happy for Joy&Darrell and Mark&Aup, way to go bringin in the kiddies! I hope Grandma Turtle can get better in every way, and way to go Mom for being the angel! My prayers are with all of you, and I hope you had a great New Year´s celebration! Mine was a firework show of z´s. Well, have a great week everybody! Love,

--Elder Ellis V

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