Hello

Well Hello again.

I am doing good and enjoying being Senior companion, my comp Elder Merrill is helping me doing my best. So he is a very good missionary and really want to and does work hard. We get along pretty good. This week has been very good.

On Tuesday we had our last district meeting with Elder Johnson and it was fun, We did a real life role play and I was partnered up with Elder Merrill who would be my new comp and we went and talked to the first 5 people we came in contact with. The 5th person was more interested and we ended up talking to him a little too long but it turns out he just tried to bash us. Elder Johnson packed the last little things and we were driven to the train station by a really nice non member who for years has been helping the missionaries. We than went to Amersfoort and spent the night there. I was able to work with Elder Nielsen a little and he is really cool and fun to work with. On Wednesday we went to the Utrecht station where we waited for all the new missionaries to arrive and to get our new companions. We just hung out for a while and I was able to see a few of the missionaries from my MTC group and some other really cool Missionaries. Elder Johnson then left and I would never see him again or at least on my mission. I had the feeling as if I was going home too. But I am glad I still have like a year and a half or something like that. Elder Merrill and I went back to Assen and went right to doing missionary work and than ate dinner with the Keuters who is the Bishops Family. Thursday was a cool day we worked with Aswin our Branch mission leader and also met with another member that evening and had a really good conversation. The rest of the week nothing else special happened except that we talked to a ton of people and had some really good conversations. We also got to eat at members houses almost every night, even Lunch on a few days. Yesterday we had an investigator come to church and she stayed around for the church Lunch and had a good time. It rained the last couple of days but that did not stop us from going from door to door. Now I mean we really had some good conversations. The last door we were gonna knock on yesterday let us in. We got some tea and just talked about what we do. We now have a dinner appointment with them for next week or so. It was cool. I love you all and miss you all and I hope all is going well. In times like these when horrible things are happening all over the world like in Africa or in Norway it is our duty as latter day saints to share the restored Gospel and the Plan of Salvation with everybody around us.

 

Love Elder Ellis

A New Transfer

Hello Everybody

Well I am doing good and am still alive.

Well last Tuesday was good, I e-mailed and had a good day but not too much so I won't go into details.

Wednesday we went down to Zwolle and had Lunch with the Elders from Zwolle and Heerenveen. It was a blast, and we ate the famous Elder Kuttler Spaghetti (to be honest I am not sure if he even made it). I than rode back to Heerenveen with Elder Wilcken my District Leader to go on x-changes. We had a great time and did a lot of finding. We did not really find anyone who was interested. It was a good day though. AT the end of the day we went back to my city Assen and there we x-changed with the zone leaders so it was a back to back x-change. Also because it got to late the Heerenveen Elders spent the night so we had a sleep over. They left the next morning and I and Elder Bair worked all day and just taught one lesson after another. We found some people who used to have contact with the Missionaries. We had a good rest of the week, actually my companions last week on his mission. Elder Johnson is really ready to go home. We had a lot of good member appointments. On Sunday we had one of our investigators come to church for the first time. He liked it and especially since Elder Johnson gave his last talk. I am sorry but I can't think right now, I have to many other things on my head, it will be better next week. I just met a guy today who was a missionary in Greece and Cyprus a while back and who knows a family from Austria who used to live there.  Also during the week we went to a sort of Concentration camp called Westerbork. It was very interesting to go and to feel the feeling of what happened there. Well also some info you all probably wanted to know. I am staying here in Assen and am going senior and my new companion will be Elder Merrill going on his 3ed transfer out of 16. ( I'm going on my 6th). I am very excited to lead the city and to be Senior, which just means I am responsible if something happens. Well I love you all and miss you.

Love Elder Ellis

(Here are a few pics we got from him over the last few months.  There's a few more but I'll add them later)

"Emmelord, we went on a P-day with some members."

"This is Elder Crittenden.  He is so cool, he and I really got along great.  He is now a Zone Leader in a different zone."

"Me on the phone talking you guys on Mother's Day."

"My comp and I at our Branch Mission Leaders home with his family.  Family Ajubi is so cool!"

"Elder Wells and I eating Via, it's a Dutch kind of pudding.  It's so good."

"This is my last time being companions with Elder Kuttler.  We are being transferred while waiting at the train station."

"....I don't know.  I guess this is what happens when you see a big rubber band laying around one night when I'm too lazy to write in my journal."

"This is where we lock up our bikes when we have to take a train.  The hard part is not only finding an empty spot but later finding your own bike cause they all look alike."

Just Another Week

Hello Everybody!

Well I am doing good and would like to apologize for e-mail on Tuesday for the last couple of weeks. One of the weeks it was a holiday on Monday so we had to do it the next day and last Monday we had a District P-day and a member appointment right after so we had no time. This Monday we went on a fun P-Day with some members so same thing happened.

So last Tuesday after we e-mailed we had a Branch council meeting for my first time in Assen and it was really good. The members are really cool and trying hard to get the Branch to grow.

On Wednesday we had a senior missionary couple come over to pick up our dryer to give to missionaries living in a 4 man apartment, so we now have to hang dry all of our clothes. Arghhhh Oh well its not too bad. When the Saldens came they talked to us and then went to a store real quick to get something for the apartment. So while they were gone we went outside our apartment to look at something and the front door shut on us because of the wind. We had no keys and pretty much nothing on us. So we locked ourselves out. We freaked out since the senior couple would be back soon and they came all the way up just to get the dryer and its still in the locked apartment. We tried to find a way to break in but just could not find a way. SO the only option was to climb from our neighbors balcony to ours since we left the back door open. Now I should also mention that we live on the 3ed floor of our apartment building. Now even better, none of our neighbors were home besides one 4 apartments over next to us. So I went on the nice ladies balcony and climbed along the outside of the railing all the way to our balcony with 3 floors down to hard concrete. It was so intense and I totally felt like Jason Bourne or James Bond. While climbing over some workers from across the street screamed: "He is braking in!" and "A jumper, Jumper" That did not make the situation any better. Luckily nothing happened and when the senior couple came back it was like we never were locked out. Oh also all the balconies are lined up against each other but there are walls separating them so I had to climb around out on the railing.

On Thursday we went and looked up our friend/ branch mission leader Aswin for his B-Day and bought him a cake. That was really cool and he really liked it. It was a good day and warm.

Friday night we went and looked up a referral way far away so we biked out there to give her the Book of Mormon that she ordered but instead a man opened the door and was all like No, No interest and closed the door on us. So we could not give the Book of Mormon to who ever ordered it from there. Oh well.

On Saturday we had President Interviews and that was really cool and inspiring. I had a really good talk with him and he really helped me out  and gave good advice. Back home we tried to find Mountain Dew which they supposedly have at this one store but not at the moment. When contacting this one lady she told us "No I am not interested cause I am on vacation." Yeah that was weird.

Sunday was nice and rustig which means like calm and church was nice but unfortunately no investigators came.

Yesterday on our P-day we went with some members and when we got to the members house I realized that I forgot my name tag so we went back. That was my first time to forget it. We than rode out to a town called Bourtange which is a town built on a star shaped island with a mote around it. It was super cool. Its close to the German border and there were a lot of German people. We had a nice picnic and just had a fun time. We walked around took a lot of pics and just had fun. Yeah. I don't know how to describe it.

Today I am writing this, so Hi!

Well the things I wrote are not the only things that happened but just the more interesting stories, I love you all and I miss both America and Austria.

Love Elder Ellis

Happy 4th of July

Hello,

 

How is everybody? Good? Awesome. I am doing good too. It was just a little weird trying to celebrate the 4th of July in Europe. I got so many dirty looks when I was running down the narrow streets of Europe with a big American flag waving from my hands. I even ended my day in the police station, but don't worry I did not get arrested, just contained and some of you know that that would not have been my first time..... yeah. When I got back to the apartment at the end of the day I realized that I lost my companion so I had to go look for him and I found him very late at night. Before I go any further I should probably mention that all that did not happen, I was just playing around. Happy 4th of July. Its been a good week and we had a lot of member appointments, it was great. last Tuesday my comp and I decided to bike to district meeting which is in Groningen about 28 km/ 17miles away from Assen so we were all sweaty for district meeting. It went good though. Oh yeah also half way there my gears broke so I had to bike it in first gear so my legs were pedaling so fast and I was not even moving that fast. After the meeting we obviously had to bike home again so we biked home on the warmest day I have had here in the Netherlands so far it was 32 degrees Celsius/ 89 degrees Fahrenheit with like 100% humidity. Charming! but Childsplay! So it was a good day. We had a lot of really good dinner appointments with members and even one non member family who we also did service for on Thursday. It was great. No yesterday on Monday the 4th of July we went to Leeuwarden with our Branch Mission Leader Aswin and with the Van Komens and the the other missionaries from our district. It was a lot of fun. We went to a monument of the first people baptized as LDS in the Netherlands. It was cool. We than drove to the oldest still working Planetarium in the World made by Else Eisinga in his living room. It was a fun day. Anyways I need to go. I miss you all and I hope everything is going good for all of you.

 

Love Elder Ellis