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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