Elder Jonathan Ellis' Mission Blog

Hello

2012-02-09T10:14:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone.

I am so sorry that I was not able to write an e-mail this last Monday. We had a zone p-day and got home to late for us to get to the library on time.

Well I also don't have much time right now to write much so I just wanted to let you all know that I am doing good and am loving my mission. I am also enjoying the freezing cold. It got to -25 Celsius which was freezing cold. I love this work, the work of the Lord. I love you all and miss you all. I'm lovin it.

Well till the next time.

Much Love,

Elder Ellis

Hello Everyone!

2012-01-30T09:38:00.001-08:00

Good Morning or whatever it is wherever you all are.

It has been a good week. I love this work and am learning to love it more and more.

I did get sick this week which was a tad bit challenging but I still worked the entire time which in the end was really rewarding since I could see the blessings that came from it because I was doing my best and working my hardest.

I went on exchanges with Elder McCarlie one of the Zone Leaders. I realized that I am not that familiar with the city yet. We did find everything eventually. We had a really good time and just worked, worked and worked.

On Wednesday we had a really good day, we looked up a lot of people and found a couple new investigators. We also looked someone up in the Hospital. The lady is so amazing and has such strong faith. She kept saying that Jesus did the surgery and not the Doctors, meaning that Jesus watched over her.

We also had an appointment with a cool lady and her 16 year old son, but when we found out that she was not home we just went in and had a good lesson with her son. Our joint teach was a 17 year Priest from the Ward. It turned out that they used to go to school together and that they are friends. It went really well.

After that we biked quickly to another Investigators house and walked with her to a member family's house. We taught the Plan of Salvation and that went really well.

On Thursday we had a really good lesson with a new guy that we found. He had a lot of good questions and is looking for truth. He has investigated a lot of different religions so he is really confused. When we walked outside only my bike was standing next to his house so Elder Li reaches into his pocket and finds it empty without his keys. He looked at me and I looked at him and said "Je heb toch niet de sleutels in je fiets vergeten?" In English meaning "You did not leave the keys in your bike, did you?" Well he did which also had the apartment key and for the church. So we walked home and had to wait all day for the other companionship to get home at night. We laughed so much and thought that it was really funny so it was not to bad. Elder Li now has another bike that he is using.

The last couple of days I have really been working on being a better Missionary and being more effective and efficient. It has changed my behavior and the work. I feel so much more motivation and help from above. I feel a lot more inspired and lead. Its amazing how just changing your thinking and mindset can make such a big difference. I love it.

We have been teaching a lot of lessons to people on the street. Its so sweet especially when you or your companion testify of what he or I have just said. It is so powerful.

Church was so good yesterday. The things we expected did not happen but instead the unexpected happened. It was amazing. A lady who was super positive that we found a few weeks ago through a member referral completely dropped us the next day after the first visit. We were really shocked and disappointed.

Well a few weeks later and she came to church with the members that referred her to us. She loved it and was so happy. She told us how sorry she was and that she was told by others that our church does not believe in Jesus Christ and that we are crazy and all that anti stuff. The sister (one of the members that referred her to us) had talked to her in between and the lady kept thinking to herself "How can they not believe in Jesus and be such an amazing woman who is so Christ-like?" The member ended up clearing up anti false information. The lady is so happy and asked if she could have the book of Mormon back. The lesson learned is that Missionaries can do all they want to help people but it is because of the example of everyday members who live Christ like lives that people see what the Gospel really is and offers. I am so thankful for members who live the gospel and are examples. It opens the door to Missionary work and Miracles. Thank You to all those who are Christ Like. Now remember that doing things not so Christ like is also an example to others and can give bad reputation to the church and the rest of the members.

I have to go

I love you all and miss you. May we all become more Christ Like by BEING like Christ and not just DOING.

Love Elder Ellis

Another Baptism

2012-01-23T08:17:00.000-08:00

Hey Everybody

I am doing so good and am having a lot of fun.

Last Monday I already told you all that I went to Amsterdam and that we went to the Anne Frank huis. It was way fun. We also went to this really good burger place called Burger Bar and all i can say is that it was probably the best Burger I have ever had. It was huge and just delicious. There are no words to describe it.

When we got back home we biked to our appointment with the family that was baptized on Saturday the 21st. Yeah I forgot to mention that we had some people ready for Baptism. Well at the appointment they had their Baptism Interviews and they were all ready to go.

On Tuesday we had a dinner appointment with Fam Herrebrugh who actually went to Austria before my mission and they talked to Hans Malzl (my uncle) and Samantha (my sister). Samantha told them that her brother (me) was going on his mission to the Netherlands. Well here I am eating with them (well not right now but last Tuesday.

On Wednesday we had District Meeting with Interviews combined. Of course we had a delicious lunch again, without the Van Komens, so that was my first District Meeting without them since I left the Groningen District. The District meeting that I held went really well and I think we all learned from it. We had good role plays. Fun. And don't worry my interview went really well too.

I am not sure if I mentioned how much we bike here. For example we will bike one direction 15 or 20 minutes and then to get to the next appointment we bike that same distance plus another 30 minutes the other direction. We do plan our appointments as effective and efficient as possible but no matter what you have to bike a ton. Also it si very windy all the time which is good when going one direction but when you have to bike back it really blows. haha get it?

We found a new lady who is actually a referral from Germany. She is amazing and just gets the message. she understands it completely. She now has a baptismal date. We are very excited for her.

When we eat with Fam Pantophlat we really get spoiled because they can cook. Man and so can Elder Li, it must be cause he is chinese. Elder Li is so awesome and I am learning so much from him. I love that Elder.

On Saturday we had Debbie, Andy and Tristan get baptized and it was so cool to see. Debbie is the mother and the two boys are her sons 16 and 12. I love that Fam. Her good friend came too and we hope that she will want to get baptized too.

Yesterday at church Andy asked if I could confirm him, so I did. It was a very powerful spiritual experience.

We also ate with the Bishop who loves Austria so he wore his Lederhosen and his wife made Wiener Schnitzel. It was so much fun. I love Austria especially when they showed me pics from all their vacations there.

Well that's it for the week I love you all.

Love Elder Ellis

The Week....?

2012-01-16T12:23:00.001-08:00

Well Hello Everybody.

I am doing great and had a very good week. We seriously taught so many lessons and are just finding people left and right. This is the Lords work because he is guiding us to the right people. I am so glad that I am here on a mission and helping people receive the gospel. I never realized how strong of an impact I can have on someone just for opening my mouth to strangers all day inviting people to listen to the message we share. Even a small little act of service can make someone smile and laugh or really help someone in need. I learned to always stand ready to help people.

I don't have much time but this last week we had some really good appointments where we could feel the spirit.

Elder Li and I are getting along very well and are having a lot of fun together. We are a powerhouse like another missionary has said.

Today for P/day we went to Amsterdam and that was so cool. We had the best Burger I have ever had. It was so Delicious. We then went to the Anne Frank house and saw her hiding place. It so sad to see what happened in world war 2. I am so glad that I speak Dutch cause now I can read the her Diary in the original language. I am excited to read the book after my mission. Well in Amsterdam you have to be very careful where you look. It can be pretty bad on certain streets. There are coffee shops everywhere and you smell marijuana no matter where you are. It was fun though.

I love you all and miss you. Sorry for not writing, but no joke we are so busy with missionary work.

Love Elder Ellis

P.S. Beterschap an the Crooks (I don´t remember how to say that word in English)

Almere is the Bomb

2012-01-09T10:27:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone!!!

I am now in Almere and I am so happy and am excited to get to know everyone here (meaning members and the investigators)

Elder Li and I are having so much fun like we are always laughing and smiling. He is Awesome.

We have lot of Investigators and some really cool people lined up for baptism. We are doing our best to help these people achieve their goal.

Almere is a lot bigger than Assen and District meeting will be in Amsterdam every week. I get to go to Amsterdam.

There are always people to talk to no matter where you are. It is so much fun. You know I love talking so here I get to do that a lot.

I am also in a 4 man apartment and that is a blast. we cook food together and just have fun and share miracles with each other.

One thing that is a little hard sometimes is that Almere is a lot bigger than Assen and we use bikes so we will bike as fast as we can in a direction for 30 or 40 minutes to get to an appointment on time. The best is when we bike home at night and we just book it as fast as we can. It is a good workout. I am really hoping to loose some weight while I am here. The Ward is also really cool and the bishop has Austrian Parents or something like that and went to Arizona on his mission. Also there is a family here who both the father and mother served their missions in Austria. Brother Reiche served in Salzburg around 25 years ago. They promised me to make me some Schnitzel and Spaetzle and other Austrian food. I am so happy to be on a mission. I love the gospel and have a very strong testimony of the truthfulness of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love God and that is why I serve him. I also love and miss all the people from Assen and Zwolle and of course my Groningen District, and The Van Komens who I will get to see them on Thursday.

I love you all and miss you.

Love Elder Ellis

Happy New Year

2012-01-03T07:03:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone.

I am sorry that I did not e-mail last year/week. Monday my P-day was a holiday here in the Netherlands so the library was not open. I was also really busy the rest of the week so I could not e-mail. I hope that everyone had a good Christmas and a Happy new Year celebration. I also hope that you all will have a good start into the year 2012. I am very excited to work in helping people come unto Christ. I have set some goals for this year and am excited to accomplish them.

I found out about transfers last night so I guess I should go ahead and tell you all what is going to happen. I am ........ finally leaving.

I am leaving Assen, I am leaving the Groningen District that I have been in my entire Mission so over a year, and I am even leaving the Apeldoorn Zone, I am however not leaving the country (Netherlands) I am going to Almere which is pretty close to Amsterdam which is also where we will be having District Meeting every week. My new Companions name is Elder Li, he is Chinese but grew up in America. He was Elder McDaniels (my comp in Assen) MTC companion. I am super excited, I will also be the District Leader in Almere. Oh another funny fact, the apartment that I will be in is a four man apartment, Elder Merrill and Elder Fullmer will also live there. Elder Fullmer has been in my District and is really cool and Elder Merrill used to be my companion in Assen for 2 transfers and 2 weeks. So it will be so much fun but we will stay focused on the work so no worries.

Well I will write my address at the end of my e/mail.

Now, Christmas was awesome, I talked to my Mom in Austria and the Stouts in America. We were at a members house for Christmas day and we had fun and ate really good food that he made. The next day we also had a Christmas dinner with another member since they have the 2nd Christmas day here.

I went on another exchange in Zwolle with Elder Bickham and we worked really hard and had a good time. It was so cool to be back in Zwolle.

All in all we had a really good week and a lot of fun times. Good dinner appointments and even sometimes Lunch.

I love the members here in Assen and will really miss them all. I will also miss the investigators. I will miss Assen and most of all I will miss the Van Komens. The are the best. I love them so much (they are the senior couple in Groningen for those of you that don´t know).

At a certain appointment we were teaching someone who has read a lot of Anti stuff online and is more busy looking at really negative stuff than looking at positive stuff. Probably more negative than the Scriptures themselves. This person is very religious but against the Book of Mormon and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. I once again bore powerful testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the Church. I felt the spirit so strong and my testimony grew. Let us all bare our testimonies more this year and let people around us feel the spirit when we do. I love you all and miss you.

A very happy 2012.

Love Elder Ellis

new address

Elder Jonathan Ellis

Stadhuisplein 13a

1315 HV Almere Stad

Nederland

I love you all.

Excited for Christmas!

2011-12-20T14:54:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody

I am so excited that it's almost Christmas. I have a stack of gifts that I want to open.

Man so on Tuesday I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders or well at least with one of them.

I went with Elder Hawkley who is a Marine, so I bet you all know what we talked about. If you were thinking that we talked about the military than you are all wrong, we are on missions so we talked about the Gospel the whole time. (and also a little about the Marines)

I got to do two more baptismal interviews with a 10 and an 11 year old. It was very cool and fun I mean like serious but special... I will just leave it at that. Also I ate so much at the dinner appointment we had, the Dutch people always say "Alles moet op" which means everything has to go or be eaten. I have no problem with that since my motto is eat till there is nothing left.

Oh I also got the `Your from Australia`thing said to me which is weird cause I am actually starting to speak with an Australian accent.

On Wednesday we had a very good Zone Training which Sister Brubaker read us a Christmas story. It was so cool. I also got to see a lot of my buddies and we just had a blast.

On Thursday we had a very good day with Aswin and had a couple really good appointments.

On Friday we went on more exchanges and that was fun too. I was with Elder Leash and we got along great.

I love you all. Elder Ellis

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

2011-12-12T08:51:00.000-08:00

Hello

Wow my buddy Cabel is coming home this week that means I only have like a little more than 10 months left. What?

Time is going by way to fast. I am loving my mission so much. I am learning so much. I love the Gospel and am so thankful for Jesus Christ. We taught a member lesson this week and we talked about the Plan of Salvation. It really made me feel the need of a saviour, Eben Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for him and will serve him all my life.

Monday we celebrated St Nikkolaas. First we ate with some members and then we went to some other members and and got presents from them and hung out a little it was sweet.

On Tuesday I prepared my District meeting in the morning before we left since I did not get what I needed to talk about till the day before in the e-mail. The meeting went really good and after we went on X-changes. I went back to Assen with Elder Hyer and Elder McDaniel went to Heerenveen with Elder Pelaquim. We had two of the best member present lessons ever. it was so sweet. Super positive. After we got out I told Elder Hyer,"Watch how I can get a dinner appointment" SO I then said out loud, "Elder Hyer what are we eating for dinner". The member then called his wife and asked if we wanted to eat with them and we were like "well.... I guess we can. It was a good day. My time is up . i ended up getting sick and I am still getting over it. I love you all and miss you, We also had a really good Christmas Dinner party. It was awesome.

Love Elder Ellis

December!!!!!! Its the most wonderful time of the year

2011-12-05T07:59:00.000-08:00

Hello

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

Jack frost nipping at your nose.

I am so excited for Christmas. I am listening to Motab Christmas edition all the time and its awesome. There is nothing better than Motab to a missionaries ears besides maybe Alex Boye' or Paul Cardell on the piano. I love the Christmas music and did not start listening to it till December 1st. I can feel that Christmas is in the air, even though thinking of Christmas makes me think of Family (and I do get trunky occasionally) I am very glad and happy to be here in Tha Netherlands on my Mission. The members here are spoiling us and giving us candy, chocolate, and what not left and right. Today is St Nikolaas which is a white bearded man with a red outfit like Santa on a white horse. We have two dinner appointments but the later is more like Hot Chocolate appointment which will be Sweeeettett.

I am so stoked about what is going on in the Mission, there are miracles everywhere. We had a lady come to church who we met on the street. I think that that was the first time that someone came to church when we invited them without being an investigator. She is now investigating. It was such an awesome Sunday. Testimony meeting was so powerful and spiritual. I love the members and get to stay here in Assen for the most wonderful time of the year.

This last Tuesday we had a zone p-day and me and Elder Sanchez (the other District Leader) taught District meeting together to both Districts and we then ate Lunch and had our Turkey Bowl. It was so much fun to play American Football, Soccer , and ultimate Frisbee. It was a blast. When we played American Football we got weird looks from people because its not that common in Europe.

I also bought an Arabic Soda at a middle eastern store. Yeah and Fudge Bars, the dates reminded me of all the stories I have of messing with palm trees and working with them and what not. All those times I had to work on the needle pricking trees. Now I look back and miss those times. I remember one time the drippers for one of the trees was broken so it just sprayed out into the ground and after some time created a deep hole which Brandon with his skinny body back then in those days climbed inside and was almost completely under the ground, funny what parents don't know. Anyways I have to go.

I love you all. and miss you

Love Elder Ellis

Merry Christmas even though I will write again next week and the week after that before Christmas so .

Time is Flying By

2011-11-28T08:33:00.001-08:00

Well

Its been another great week and I can't believe that I am on my 9th transfer out of 16. Its crazy how fast time goes by.

This past week we have been working really hard just to reach our goals that we set. On Tuesday we had a good District Meeting and am finally feeling like that I'm getting the hang of being a District leader. I mean its been going good ever since I started. After the Meeting the wonderful Van Komens made us a Thanksgiving Dinner for Lunch. It was so delicious. Their son and daughter in law are visiting who have the cutest little girl ever. It was so much fun to sit in the same District that I have been in my entire mission except that I am the only one. The rest have all moved in recently and are new to the District. Soon I will have been in the same District for a year. Aswin came to the Thanksgiving Lunch and then worked with us the rest of the day. Now that is commitment. He is so awesome.

It has been extremely foggy lately except today it is sunny and nice outside. But when it is foggy you can barely see anything. You will be biking and out of no where someone is coming at you on a bike or a car. We are very cautious. (For those who worry)

Wednesday we just had so much success. It seemed so many people were open. Number wise we did really good but whats important is that people are coming unto Christ. At night on our way home we did not know what else to do so we prayed for guidance. So a little later as we bike home I felt that we need to look someone up. It is an older couple who are so nice and have treated the missionaries with so much love and care for years. When we got there we noticed a red light blinking at their neighbours house. The old man walked with us around the house to see if anything happened but it was fine so we turned off the alarm. We still don't know why we had to look them up but we spent the rest of the evening with them drinking hot chocolate.

On Thursday was another amazing day with just talking to one after another. Teaching lessons right and left. We made a lot of appointments.

On Friday we had such a busy day. We had 7 appointment of which 4 did not go through. We still had a good day though.

On Saturday morning we went to this part of Assen where there was supposed to be some kind of seminar about spirituality. We could not find it so we just knocked some doors. We started talking to a man who after 15 minutes let us in. We had a very good time with him and his wife and talked about very cool and Spiritual things. So we did get to go to a seminar except for we were the teachers. No but seriously we all had our part.

Sunday was also a very good day. After church we had a Lunch with the members which is always super fun. I am getting to used to Assen I mean I feel like I am at home. I am also getting really attached to the people here. I love Assen. We then went to eat at a members house with a couple other members coming along. It was fun and I was so full for the rest of the day.

I want to say one more thing, there are people who are incredibly rude where I really, now I mean really have to hold my self back from saying something back to them, something Christ would probably not say. Some people really do not have manners. They only cause themselves more stress and anger. So that's it.

I love you all and I hope that all is going well.

Love Elder Ellis

Hello, Hallo

2011-11-21T10:14:00.001-08:00

Hey

It is now Monday and I received no call last night and this morning my Zone Leaders called me to tell me that there will be no changes in our District except that we are getting an extra Elder up in Groningen in a 3 some. I am still the District Leader and staying in Assen with Elder McDaniel. I am moving to my 5th transfer in Assen, that's a very long time. Well I am excited to stay since I actually felt that there was something else that I needed to do here. I just don't know what yet. We'll see.

To answer peoples question, Yes the Baptism went through. Saturday was such an awesome day. Yeah!!!

It was very spiritual, well the second half of the day. There were 3 baptisms in Groningen and we went to all three. Yeah!!! Baptisms!!!!

The first one was really cool and there were a lot of people and like half of them were non members. I talked to a lot of them. Talking to People.... Yeah! The second baptism was very special because it was an older lady who received all the lessons in a care home and came for the baptism to church. I was a able to be a witness. Then finally the last one of the night was Bernadette.

It was so cool to see someone I found or refound, retaught everything and watched her get baptized. Aswin baptised her and Elder McDaniel and I were the witnesses. I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and I cried a couple times especially since the talk was directed at Bernadette and everytime I looked at her I saw her crying. I felt the spirit so strong that night. I know that the church is true and that it has been restored through a prophet of God. I know that Jesus lives and that he is leading his church today.

The next day at church she was confirmed and I felt so much joy and was so happy that I can not describe it in words. Also one of the investigators we have came to both the baptism and church. She now also wants to be baptized. The Spirit of God like a fire is burning.

The whole week was good. We also had Zone Training which went very well. Aswin came too and he really liked it. The Loorbach family is so cool and really support Missionary work. They are a blessing. I am excited to stay longer in Assen but its also gonna be harder to leave. Well my time is up. I hope that all is going well for you.

I love you all.

Love Elder Ellis

What is Time?

2011-11-14T09:17:00.000-08:00

Hello

I have had another week go by on my mission. Time is past and today is a new Monday. Tomorrow will be Tuesday. I have the opportunity to wake up every new day and recommit to my Mission and my life as a worthy Priesthood holder of God. I try my best everyday but yet I find myself sometimes not doing my best. I realize it and than do my best. I may have learned a lot the last year or even my life but I can have a day that goes against all what I have learned just as fast as I can snap my fingers. I have had days on my mission that I am not very proud of (I did not do anything that would get me sent home), like sleeping in, being lazy and not caring about the time or stuff like that. These choices really affect the missionary work. However I find myself starting over and over again doing my best. In Alma it says that this life is the time to prepare to meet god. We do have to endure to the end, but that is very hard to do. I have found on my mission that there are three essential things for a ongoing conversion. We as missionaries call it THE BIG 3. Pray Always, Scripture Study and Church Attendance (Keeping the Sabbath day holy). Everyday that I wake up and the first thing I do is kneel and pray, have a really good personal Scripture study, things seem to run smoothly throughout the day. I can feel the guiding Gift of the Holy Ghost. When I attend church on Sundays I feel uplifted and serve others and feel Gods love. These are the things that help me be a good missionary. There are many other things that we work on to improve our lives but these three things are what keep the fire of our Testimony alive. I love my Mission. I may be in an Area which by some people is considered a bad area or a hard place to serve, but when I think about it, it really does not matter where I serve my God. He is with me and that's all that matters. I have felt the Atonement in my life and have seen it take effect in the lives of others.

So last Monday we did not have a real P-day. We had it on Tuesday instead with our whole District. We went to a Museum in Leeuwarden about the Resistance in World War 2. It was very interesting and fun to be with our District. Aswin also went mee. He is tha man. One with dedicated service. One I have seen grow so much. It reminds me of Elder Shields who was such a big influence in my life and a missionary who played a big part in my decision to go on a mission. I can not even imagine that I could take that kind of place even a little. I am just me, but now Elder Ellis. I love all the Members here in Assen and will have a hard time leaving this area if I do. Transfers are next week and I don´t know what will happen.

I was on X/changes with Elder Kunz and that was fun. I also went to District Leader Council with Elder Sanchez which was also cool. We had a sweet District Leader Council. On the train ride back we taught a young girl a little about the Restoration and about God and Jesus Christ. We sat in a silence section. Across from her was a man who kept looking at us so I thought he was mad at us for talking. The girl said `I believe that there is something out there but just don´t know what and who Jesus really is` all of a sudden the Man starts testifying about how our Heavenly Father lives and that Jesus Christ is our Saviour and that it will change her life if she believes. HE bore a very powerful testimony and he sounded like a member but I am sure he was not. He then just left. Best Joint Teach ever. I thought that he was either John the Beloved or just an Angel. Even just a normal Christian who acted as an angel. God works miracles. Church was awesome just one good thing after another. Bernadette is all good to go and will be baptized on Saturday. She means so much to me and I am so happy that she is being Baptized. I love you all and I know that this restored Gospel is true.

Love Elder Ellis

Hallo goede dag!

2011-11-07T07:38:00.001-08:00

Well it has been another week and I am amazed how fast time is going by. I cannot believe that Christmas is coming up. I am so excited to talk to people about the Birth of Christ (yes I know that he was not actually born in December) but it is a good time to celebrate his birth. I am so glad that I am here on my mission because I am learning so much. I love the Lord and his gospel. We can be so happy that the Gospel has been restored. Now, what does that actually mean to me? Well when I think about what I want my future family to look like the only way I can imagine it is with the Gospel principle as the foundation of my home. I see so many families in Assen and all over the Netherlands and I just really want to share with them what it means. The Gospel blesses lives. My new Companion Elder McDaniel is a convert to the church and it has blessed his life so much. I am so honored to be able to train him. I love him already. He is such a good guy. All the members that I have met are amazing and good examples of followers of Christ. I love the members all over the world. There was a lady visiting from Honduras or something like that. She spoke no Dutch nor English and I spoke no Spanish but she was a member and I just felt as if I knew her. Such a sweet lady. I am also so happy to see the way people change their lives once they start feeling that the Gospel is true. My life is changing and I can't imagine what my life would be like if I was not on a mission. We went on joint-teach with this family last week and the daughter is preparing to go on a mission. It was a very good experience for all of us. We also had interviews this last week and it was good to talk to the president and his wife. I went on x-changes with an Elder from Brazil. He is also such a good missionary like all the others in this mission. We had fun. We had a really good Sunday and great testimonies and we went to Family Loorbach for dinner and had a great time, We now share a very spiritual experience and I feel at home when I am there. I also act like I am at home. I maybe need to not tell them to serve me like I did yesterday. It was good though and they are just so awesome. I am blessed to have so many friends and family who are on missions or preparing to go, I also should not forget those who already went. I said the word I a lot so now I want to say I love YOU all. You are the motivation, you are the strength, you are the support and you are loved by our Heavenly Father. Thank you all.

I love you all

Love Elder Ellis

Hello

2011-10-31T11:18:00.000-07:00

I hope you all were able to somehow translate last weeks letter. I thought it would be fun to write in Dutch, to practice my spelling.

Well let me start like this.

Tuesday I went on exchanges to Groningen with Elder van Doesburg an Elder who is Dutch. We had a really good exchange and talked to some really cool people. We had a good time and only spoke Dutch.

On Wednesday we exchanged back and when we got to Assen our companions had a delicious Lunch waiting for us. We then had a cool lesson with a Dutch guy and his girlfriend from America. They bought us some hot chocolate and we sat inside of a cafe. It was one of those lesson where they were just really critical bringing up common concerns like "A Bible, a Bible, we have got a Bible and need no more." Or that it says nothing about the Book of Mormon in the Bible. When we tried proving it they still did not want to believe. They are really cool though. We had a dinner with the Branch President. We were planning all the pranks we would play on the new missionary when ever he comes. We had a lot of fun and just had a good time. We then went and taught Bernadette. She is so nice and we pretty much finished teaching everything. As we were biking home I got a phone call from the Assistants to the President who told me that I needed to be in Leiden the next day at 1 o`clock. I was like why? They told me to pick up the new missionary. What? They then said you did not know? I was like No! and apparently they knew for a few days now. So we went and Elder Merrill packed for the rest of the night. The next day we went down to Amsterdam where we waited for Elder Brockbank who would go down to Leiden with me and Elder Taylor, Elder Merrills new comp. I got to see Amsterdam. It was so cool. My new comps name is Elder McDaniel and he is from Texas. He is really cool.

Alas my time is up but I'll write more next week. Love you all.

This Week Was Temple Day

2011-10-24T14:02:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone

Hallo, hoe gaat het? Het gaat goed met mij en ik ben altijd blij. Mijn zending gaat heel goed tot nu toe. Ik had net mijn eerste doop, een man uit Zwolle, Metske is zijn naam. Ik ben so gelukig. Het is gek hoe snel de tijd vergaat, ik ben nu al 1 jaar op zending. ja vet man.

Yo I am so happy. like I said a man in Zwolle got baptized yesterday. I helped teach him when I was in Zwolle matter of fact, I kind of re found him. He has been investigating for a long time now and a countless number of Missionaries have taught him. I was filled with joy when I found out that everything went good.

Tuesday was good and all but the best part about it was at night we went to a lady with a member and taught about the first principles and ordinances of the gospel. It was a really good lesson. She wants to be baptized and wants to stop smoking. Well first stop smoking. After that appointment we went with the Member´s family to a American All you can eat Restaurant. It was really good and we had a really fun time. The De Jonges are so cool and so much fun. I ate so much that I about died. well I about exploded. That same night we took a train down to Apeldoorn to spend the night with the Zone Leader so we would be closer to the Temple since we had to be there at 9 in the morning. We got the Zone Leaders pretty late. It was a fun sleep over but of course nothing too crazy happened.

On Wednesday my comp and I woke up at 4:30 and got ready and then took the train to Zoetermeer which is where the temple is. It was a really cool day and we had lots of fun and it was so nice to go to the temple. Elder Weideman came a 70 out Switzerland. I spoke to him in German.

On Thursday I had my year mark but it was just a normal day.

Friday till saturday I wad a sweet X-change with Elder Bickham and we talked to a ton of people and found some potential investigators. We had a really hard working X-change.

On Sunday an American couple came to church which was cool. My time is up for today. I love you all very much Keep it up. The Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Amen

I love You all

Love Elder Ellis

Half Way Done

2011-10-17T08:51:00.000-07:00

Hello ya'll

I am sorry if some of you are expecting letters from me and are not getting any. It is a lot harder to write letters than I thought. I am trying to find time to write back to those who have written me.

It's been an interesting week. I am still waiting for my new companion and so Elder Merrill and I are still working here in Assen and it was a little hard to be focused since we knew that we both are supposed to be doing other things. Like training for me and him being in another city. Also Elder Kuttler one of my old companions went home on Thursday so I realized that I only have a year left. I met him first when He had a little less than a year left. Weird. The mission has changed big time. The District meetings are still good and really cool especially as a District Leader because I am really paying attention to all the input from the other Missionaries so that means that I am learning a lot from the other Elders and the Van Komens. Bernadette is also doing good but we had to change her date to be baptized. She is really positive though.

Wednesday was a cool day because we had nothing planned since that day was left unplanned for transfers but since nothing happened for us yet we stayed and did a lot of finding.

Man I am so happy because they are now selling Olibollen again which are kind of like doughnuts but so lekker. We bought some on Friday night while we were doing some finding in the city.

I feel that our lessons are really improving and that we have been able to help our investigators more. Sunday was a good day because we went to a baptism for an 8 year old girl from the Branch. After that we rode out to the border of Germany to eat with a member family. We had a lot of fun. I love you all and am thankful for all the support.

Love Elder Ellis

Transfer Week

2011-10-10T08:19:00.001-07:00

Well Hello.

So I have to admit that I pretty much knew what was happening for transfers the last week or so. I did not want to say anything because it was still up in the air.

Sunday night one of the Zone Leaders told me that I would be going with him to Leiden the Mission Office on Thursday for some kind of a training. I thought that's weird. He later told me that its a training for potential trainers. I was like "Whaaaaaat?......" I might train.

On Monday the District that I am in decided to do a district P-day where we went to the 150 year Monument with bicycles. We rode from leeuwarden to there and back. 20 km each way..... In Suits since we said we bike all the time anyway so we might as well stick out to people, we did. The way there was really nice and at the monument we met the Van Komens who brought some Lunch Sandwiches. We had a really good time, till we had to bike back and the wind was blowing against us the entire time. It took us a little longer to get back. We still had fun it was just a little trying. On Monday Aswin had a knee surgery. It went really well.

On Tuesday we had a District Meeting talking about General Conference. It was really cool and the spirit was very strong. We also had another good lesson with Bernadette, the wonderful lady who will be baptized soon. She is so awesome and is making so much progress. We had a really good Branch Council and really got a lot of support from the Branch Members and Leaders.

Wednesday was a little slower, the reason, we had to e-mail and go grocery shopping.

Thursday we X-changed with the Zone Leaders and I went down to Leiden Through Amsterdam. I saw Amsterdam and the airport and an airplane which was about..... a year away from me. The Training was really and so inspiring and spirit filled. I feel so lucky that I was considered a potential trainer. After the training we had Domino's pizza. I then hung out with the office Elders for a while because we had to wait for a new car for the Zone Leaders. The rest of the day went really good as well.

On Friday we worked in Emmen and its about a hour bus ride and right as we got there our appointment called us off. Luckily we had something else planned as well.

On Saturday we did a lot of finding and got a couple doors with people not so happy to see us. We just responded nicely and left. We contacted over 50 people which means that we knocked at least over 100 doors since not everyone answered or was home.

Sunday was really nice. Bernadette showed up early and really liked church. I was asked to give a short 5 min talk about something I learned from General Conference. It went pretty good. However it was freezing in the church cause the heater did not work. Half of the members wore their jackets. We then went with the Loorbachs to eat with them and had delicious Lasagna and this time I had just the right amount. We had a fun time with them. I love um.

We had our 4th appointment with Bernadette that week and it was really cool. Then on our way home I received a phone call from one one of the Assistants who then told me that I will be training. Since the New Missionaries are experiencing difficulties with their Visa's they will be arriving a little late and Elder Merrill and I will stay together till then. Its been a really good week and I am excited to train. So that means I am staying in Assen for another 6 weeks at least. I will be in one District for half of my mission and only two cities. I love it though. Thanks for all the support. I love you all. Miss you.

Love Elder Ellis

Today while emailing us! First time sending pics through email... long overdue!

Typical Jon... One of his trademark looks :)

Sweet Week

2011-10-05T10:03:00.000-07:00

Hello

So I am extremely sorry that last week was so short. I feel like that there is always so much that happens that its impossible to even give a small update. By now so much has happened again that I can hardly remember what else happened last week. So I am sorry that my e-mail from last week is unfinished.

On Tuesday we had a great District meeting and it was great to have the Van Komens back ( not just so they could make lunch) They are so awesome. Oh yeah here is what is cool. A journalist from a Dutch newspaper decided to write an article about the Mormon Missionaries and she chose our District. Which meant she not only followed around the Zone Leaders in the District but to also sit in on a District Meeting, held by me. Yeahh.... great. It went well though, she mostly just observed and took notes. The article she wrote mostly talked about the two Elders that she followed around but I was still worried that she would say something like:"Whoever that young guy was that taught the meeting had no clue what he was doing." But no nothing like that. It all went well.

I went on X-change with my long known friend Elder Wilcken ( since we both have been in this District forever.) We went to the Loorbachs for dinner again and it was delicious like always. They always make fun of me because I eat so slow. I guess I do. Aswin then went back to Assen with us to go on joint teach. Both the Ladies we taught are so awesome and one of them has a baptism date. She also came to the General Conference. It was cool. She text us the next day and said that she wants to be baptized one week earlier. Elder Wilcken and I also had a really cool discussion about gospel things, pfffff... what else do you expect from two Elders who have been on a mission for a while. That is all we think about.

Wednesday we had a great rest of the X-change. We did some finding in the park dragging the beautiful weather with us and had some sweet conversations. The people seemed more open since they were walking their dogs and had nothing else to do anyway. We kept quoting scriptures in our contacts. It was powerful to see peoples reactions to it. After the X-change my normal companion and I went to Fam Keuter for dinner (branch Presidents fam) We had a blast there like always.

On Thursday we had a cool finding hour where I tried to convince a lady that God existed. She said that's just what I believe to feel secure. I told her "No you just believe that he is not real" I asked her if she believes in Gravity and she said yes so I dropped my keys and said that no matter what the keys will fall every time. You can say that gravity does not exist, but in the end it does or else the keys would not fall every time. I then boldly said "God lives and he is real" It was cool how the spirit testified to me as I said that.

All I can do is testify. Oh yeah I also gave my first Baptism interview for one of the people that was being baptized in Groningen. That was a really cool experience.

On Friday we went to the Baptism and the journalist also came with her friend and I started talking to them and answering a ton of questions, one of the members then took over. It was really good.

Saturday was also a great day. On Sunday we got to see the Missionary Superbowl aka General Conference, man it was so awesome and I learned so much from it. It was a sweet day. I have to go. I love you all.

Love Elder Ellis

My Busy Week

2011-09-26T08:38:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody,

Well my week has been great and extremely busy.
On Monday after P-day we had two appointments which both went really well.
On Tuesday we had District Meeting and to be honest I was not that well prepared to teach, it was good though. I now know to take a little more time to prepare. We then waited for a delivery of new chairs for the Church and unloaded them and put them in the church. When we got back to our own city we had two really good lessons and set a baptismal date with one of the investigators.
On Wednesday I had a District Leader Council in Leiden at the mission office. I was gone all day and I went with Elder Sanford while my companion and Elder Sanfords Companion stayed in Apeldoorn.
I would finish my e-mail but the library is closing. I love you all
Love Elder Ellis

The Life of Elder Ellis

2011-09-19T09:11:00.000-07:00

Hello!

How is everybody? I am doing pretty good and am excited to change things around. Now you all are probably wondering what I mean by that.

The mission and actually all missions of the church have a new schedule to go by. Our main focus is to find and teach Families. haha really funny. When I first heard that I just thought to myself: "Yeah that is what we always look for to begin with, it's just so hard to find a family" Well we had a training that made it more clear to me on how we would find and teach more Families. Now back to the new schedule. It is a lot different than the one I went by the past 9 months (in the field) but it is gonna be so awesome to live by it. I am exited because I know that it will build the kingdom. I am praying to increase my faith and ability to teach with good dutch and to teach simply to get the point across.

I will let you all know what its like.

We found 2 new investigators this last week and they are very nice women. They don't know each other. They both are excited to learn a lot and accepted to make a calender of how often we will come by. I learned that our investigators need to know that we come to teach and that there are certain topics that we need to cover. So many people just like talking but it goes no where besides all around the gospel (topic wise that is).

We also met with a really cool lady (member) who unfortunately has not come to church for a while. She said that she wants to come back. Sweet.

On Thursday we had Zone Training where we heard about the changes from our Mission President. It was very good training.

After the training I went on exchanges with one of the Elders working in Zwolle. It was really fun to be back in my old city. I was able to look up one of the former investigators. I love Zwolle. We also found two new investigators who are awesome and who we had really good lessons with. Unfortunately one of the investigators was hit by a car the night after we found him. His dad text us and told us that our appointment won't go through because he is in a coma. I hope that he will recover to full strength.

Really quick some updates that I forgot to mention a while ago. When I used to work in Zwolle we had 2 solid planned baptisms. Both of the wonderful ladies have not been baptized yet. One is still investigating but needs time and the other stopped contact because she was antid. A Family that was and is so awesome went inactive while I was there it started but now they no longer come to church at all. It is so sad to see those kind of things.

A little better news. On Saturday we had our last open house in Leeuwarden. We talked to a ton of people again and I gave a church tour in German to a lady from Hamburg. I also talked to a really cool Canadian guy. It was a great success.

When we were waiting for the train before going home a lady started asking questions about our faith or believe in front of a ton of people and we had to really stand for what we believe. I hope that some of the people around us now have something to think about .

I love you all and I must go. Thanks for all the support.

Love Elder Ellis

Hey Everybody

2011-09-13T11:51:00.000-07:00

I am very thankful for all the e-mails and letters just so you all know. I may not always be able to respond right away but I am very thankful. I love you all.

So let me see if anything cool happened this last week.....

Let's start with Tuesday. I gave my first District meeting and that went really good and it was fun. I also realized how everyone loves to get distracted on other things but to be honest the biggest distraction is gone since I am now teaching and focused on what needs to be covered. I love calling the Elders from the District Sunday nights and even though it does not always seem like it, I am trying to be a good example for the District. I am so far from it but I am working on it.

After the District Meeting we finally had a guy come to check out the leak in our bathroom and it should be taken care of soon.

Man I love Branch council where we talk about the investigators of the area with the leaders from the Branch. It is a spiritual environment where we can seek inspiration from everyone to help us with our responsibilities in the area.

On Thursday we worked with Aswin again. Man he is so Awesome. He is the Best!! we taught a sweet lesson to a nice lady and we all felt the spirit.

On Friday we were looking for someone and could not find her house so we were just in this area wandering around till we came across a guy who was about to take a washing machine into this lady's house and he jokingly said "Oh two strong young guys, who came just to help" We were like sweet can we help and they were like"No it's good" But they finally let us help and we carried it up a floor up a Dutch stair case which goes straight up and each step is tiny. It was fun because most people don't like getting help.

Saturday we had another open house in Leeuwarden and my comp and I talked to a little over 400 people all together. We were so busy but I have to admit he was on fire. He just talked to everybody. I also helped a guy who got robbed right after getting money from the bank. He speaks Farsi or Persian its the same but he also speaks Dutch. When the police came I had to give a report of what he told me. I just contacted him like a couple minutes after he was robbed. He is a really nice guy.

Oh we ate dinner with the Loorbach family 3 times this week, Aswins family. They are so awesome and so nice. I love um so much.

I also forgot to mention that I was on exchange with Elder Bjork who is one of the Zone Leaders and we had so much fun and found two new investigators and had a few awesome lessons that day. I love that Elder. I love this work and I love learning about the Gospel. I am also excited to go on more exchanges with the other Elders in the District. Well I love you all and am so grateful for the support and the prayers and everything. You all stone.... I mean Rock! haha I came up with that while writing a letter to someone. anyways

The gospel has been restored by the Prophet Joseph Smith and I know that it's true. I Love Jesus!

Love Elder Ellis

Yo

2011-09-05T20:50:00.000-07:00

I have realized that writing a subject for every e-mail is kinda, well dumb, cause I run out of ideas.

Hello

I am doing good and I hope so are all of you.

I am starting a new week in a new transfer and at the end of this transfer I will hit my year mark, well beginning next transfer. Not that I am thinking about my time I just can't believe how fast time is going by. I just can't imagine my normal life anymore.

On Tuesday we had a cool appointment with 2 investigators who are not interested in our message but our well-being. So they make us Delicious healthy food and gave us frozen pasta sauces to take home and freeze. They are so awesome. We do talk about why we are on missions and they can't believe that we would at our young age leave all worldly things behind to talk to people about the gospel. I hope that they think about it and come to realize eventually how beautiful and important the gospel of Jesus Christ is.

I did have a pretty painful day on Wednesday, my back pain is getting worse but I am learning that if I walk in a handstand to my appointments that the pain goes away. JK I do have a muscle stem thingy which really helps I just have to be more consistent with it.

We had an appointment with a young guy who tryed to convince us that religion is false. I went out of that appointment with a strengthened testimony. HE has really good points but my testimony was able to withstand. Only cause I study, pray and go to church very consistently.

On Thursday we had a sick appointment with two new investigators who are super positive. The Mother started crying when we told her that she can be with her son forever. At the end of the appointment she said the prayer and she cried through it and man the spirit was strong.

I have learned a lot about Revelation for myself and for those I teach. Sometimes we plan for an investigator and we then teach something completely different because we were lead by the spirit and we then find a concern that was stopping them from progressing, even if it means that we can't set a new baptismal date because they need to really do things on their own. I am sorry if this last sentence is confusing, it sounded much better in my head.

On Friday it was perfect weather , the sun was shining but it was fresh outside and we went and did service in a members yard.It was fun. He then in turn fed us. I love service.

On Saturday we did another open house in Leeuwarden and talked to alot of people. I talked to an Austrian and he is actually from Salzburg and his dialect which I thought I could speak was hard to understand. I tried talking back with my Salzburger dialect but apparently that no longer exists.

On Sunday we had stake conference and it was fun to see all the members from Zwolle. We had an awesome day.

I Love You All. My time is up.

Love Elder Ellis

Uhhh

2011-08-29T13:32:00.000-07:00

Hello

I am doing very good and I hope all is well at homes (Austria and America) (or where ever else anyone may be)

I was asked to tell a little more about me sharing a powerful testimony with some investigators. This is a very special experience I have had and means a lot to me so I can't go into details, however, we were meeting with a couple to tell us that they don't want to keep the BoM ( Book of Mormon) and that we should focus on Christ. SO I shared with them that the reason we use the BoM is to testify of Christ. We read powerful passages and scriptures from the book. The lady got mad and threw the book on the table and said that all we need is Christ and not Mormon, instead of bashing her with Why do you use the bible then? I started baring testimony and told her that many people have told me its false. I know that its true because I have received a witness and an answer from God that it is true and I will not let any human being tell me that its not because I believe that God is the source of all truth and no one else. I held the book up and said "I would not take two years out of my life sharing a book with people that is not true. I stand as a witness that Christ lives and a part of that testimony comes from having read the BoM and having prayed about it. I know that its true." This was all in Dutch of course and I said many other things and felt a little like Abinadi. As I stood I felt the spirit so strong and testifying to me of its truth. I challenge all to see for yourselves and read, ponder and pray about the Book of Mormon with a sincere heart. I know that God answers our prayers and that the Book of Mormon testifies of Christ and that it is a fruit of the restored Gospel.

Now on another note. Meaning more recent, this last week has been good, really good. One of our investigators is making a lot of progress, someone who did not believe in Jesus Christ now through reading the BoM is starting to accept him as his redeemer. He came to church again and is feeling the Gospel bless his life.

Saturday was also a very good day. We did some finding by the market and talked to some cool people and later found a new investigator who wants her dad to also sit in next time. We then traveled out to a Branch BBQ. At the Bus station in Assen we talked to 3 people waiting for the Bus and they would ask us what we were doing and why we would come to the Netherlands and so we shared a little. On the Bus we talked to a young guy who had a lot of questions and accidentally took the wrong bus but to be able to go back he had to go all the way where we were going. A Miracle! We shared the Restoration and gave him a BOM and some more info. When we got off the bus I felt that I needed to go back on the bus and give one of the ladies from the Bus Station a card with our number and church website. We then went to the BBQ and had a fun time with the members and later that night we got a text from that lady asking about "The Austrian" so we text her a little and hope that we can meet with her soon. This is the first time that someone has called/texted from me giving out a card. We are truly being blessed and the Mission is awesome. I love my Mission so much and I love the Gospel and Jesus Christ. I am so thankful that I am able to be on a mission and help others find the truth.

Now some other info. I am staying in Assen with Elder Merrill for at least another transfer and I am now also the District Leader. I was born and raised in this District and I get to be the District Leader of it too. I am so happy. Another miracle just happened, we got a text from an investigator and she wants to have dinner with us and give us food to take home. I love this work. Sometimes this work can be discouraging but with an eye single to the glory of God everything is possible to overcome. I love you all and am thankful for your prayers and help. I miss everyone I know.

Love Elder Ellis

A Short Message

2011-08-22T08:38:00.000-07:00

Hey

First of all I just want to say thanks for all the awesome e-mails from all of you! It has made my day and I am Happy.

I don't have so much time beacause I just got back from a P-day with some members at the Zoo. It was a lot of fun and the Loorbachs are awesome and so nice. They are taking good care of us here. Well all the members are.

Last monday night we had an interesting lesson with a Dutch couple. We had a good discussion but we are obviously not on the same page. Their purpose was to give the Book of Mormon back and to convince us that we don't need the Book of Mormon. I bore such a powerful testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ, The spirit was so strong that I felt like I was on fire (in a good way).

On wednesday I had a really good B-Day and got amazing dinner from the Loorbachs. We also had an awesome Lunch with Matty Dohle. I worked as hard as I could even though it was my birthday. It's crazy how fast time goes by. I am already 20! What happened?

Well I have to go

I love you all

Love Elder Ellis

My Week

2011-08-15T08:42:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody,

I am doing so good especially because I am experiencing miracles. I learned that we have to look for the miracles that happen everyday. This week has been good and I have been working pretty hard. My comp Elder Merrill and I get along very well and we are having fun together.

On Wednesday we worked with our Branch mission leader after we ate Lunch with his Family. His mom made really good Lasagna. Aswin (Branch mission leader) then took us back to Assen. Oh really quick before I forget while we were in Appelscha which is were he lives, when my comp and I got off the bus to walk to his house we would usually turn left but for some reason I had the feeling that we needed to keep on going, so we did. Al of a sudden some Hispanic Family said "Elders" we looked at them and they were like"Hallo" so we just smiled and replied and you know members or anyone who knows missionaries always wave to missionaries as if they knew them and we have no clue who they are, if they are members or investigators or whatever. So we of course like always act like we know them and reply " Hey How are you" ( but in Dutch obviously) we then asked do you know the Missionaries and it turns out that they are members from Rotterdam and that they are here for business. They spoke Spanish but the Dad spoke a little Dutch. It was cool that we ran into them.

So back to where I was before. Aswin and we did some finding and then went to McDonald's for Dinner and it was so expensive and I got a meal deal. In Dollars it would have been about 12 $. It was ridicules, I won't go there again. Oh and also I have never seen a McDonald's so busy like this one. The only thing I could compare it to would be an Inn and Out Burger in Utah. It was completely full. After Aswin went back home we had the Zone Leaders show up to get a Romanian BoM ( Book of Mormon) from us. We talked for a while and I just have to say they are so awesome and funny. I love um.

I have to admit that on Thursday we were a little lazy and sat in the apartment a little longer than we should have so we did an exercise to help us focus. We looked at our name tags for a couple of minutes and wrote down what we felt or noticed. It was very Humbling. We then set some goals and went back to work. We went and did a consecrated hour and we experienced a miracle. This is it:

One of the new investigators we found was at the end of our Consecrated hour when we both felt inspired to leave the street we were on to go to this apartment building. We started ringing door bells but then felt as if we were in the wrong place so we walked away from the building and just stood on a lawn and looked around not knowing what to do. I then briefly saw someone walking by his or her window at the end of the building and we felt that that was who we needed to talk to. So we went to the second floor to the door of that apartment where we saw that person and no one opened. We felt a little disappointed but then felt the spirit saying "Knock" so we did and a man opened the door. We started talking about Happiness and he said he is not too happy right now, so we talked a little and made an appointment to come back and exchanged numbers. It was truly a miracle that we were sent to someone who needs the Gospel.

On Friday we worked in a city called Emmen and unfortunatly things did not go as planned so we ende up going back to Assen early.

Sunday I gave a talk and it was really good , well thats what the members said. It was about 17 minutes in Dutch, with notes, I did not read off a paper the whole time. yeah I should be more humble. Sorry I am just happy. Today we cleaned all day and never got tired except my back hurt but I am fine. I love you all and am Happy and excited to be a Missionary. I love the Gospel and the Lord......... more, there is so much more to write but my time is limited.

Love Elder Ellis

Hello Everyone

2011-08-08T12:50:00.001-07:00

Last P-day was really fun because we went to a little place called Orvelte which is a very old town with about 83 inhabitants. They had a farm house from 1600 and lots of other cool things. The best thing was the members that took us. Harrie and Mattie Dohle who are twins and have lived in Assen their whole lives. They are very strong in the church and work together and have a very strong bond and apparently never fight. They are examples of Priesthood holders. They spoiled us that P-day.

On Tuesday we had X-changes where I was with Elder Hyer a Greeny. His Dutch however is very good. We had an interesting District meeting because the Van Komens where out of town so we had to go to Subway for Lunch because they could not spoil us. We then went inside the Groningen center and Most of the Missionaries from my district sang Hymns while a few of us including me contacted people. We got to talk to a lot of cool people and I got to talk to so many germans but now that I think about it I might have already writen about this last week.

Well the rest of the wek was great and unfortunatly the Library is closing so that means I have to come to an end.

I love you all and miss you, till next week when I have more time.

Love Elder Ellis

Hello and Sorry for Being Late

2011-08-03T07:41:00.000-07:00

Hello again

I have had a good week, because of many reasons,

1. I am a full-time Missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints/ representative of Jesus Christ.

2. We talked to some great people and

3. We had Zone Conference which means we got to see some missionaries that I really like and who are good friends, also of course because we got great insight from the President.

It was a very good conference. I have to keep this e-mail short because we have an appointment in a few minutes so I want to share something.We experienced a miracle last Friday when we decided to finally go running in the morning. It was a little past 6:30 when we came across a lady on a bike who needed help to get to the train station. Now we had forgotten to wear our name tags so she just started talking to us as if we were normal guys on a jog. She then started getting emotional and shared with us that she has biked from a little town since 4:30 that morning to go to the train station to go home early because she had a really bad vacation experience with drunk people. She asked us if we drank and rejoiced to our answer of no. She invited us for some tea (rooibos) at the train station and we listened and eventually she asked us questions and we told her that we were from our church and she said that she has heard a lot about Mormons but now she knows that it is a good church because of our example. We received her information for the Elders in her area and she told us that she will read the Book of Mormon. I know that she needed someone to listen to her that morning and we were truly sent to her. We are missionaries 24/7 for two years and in general as members of the church. That really strengthened my testimony. I experienced a few Miracles this week and it really helped me. Also I was in Groningen with all the Elders from my District and we did a finding activity in the centrum where some Elders sang while I and some others went and contacted people, most of the people I talked to were German and only spoke German. I spoke German with and American accent and a really strong Dutch accent. I even talked to a lady from Austria Wels. I have not heard that Austrian dialect for so long that I just embarrassed myself when I attempted to have an Austrian accent. I need to practice my German somehow. It was great. I also met a really col guy who is from Suriname and he gave me all his information so that way I can come visit him and all just because we have the same last name. He is so cool. We do not even look alike I mean big difference in Color. It was a good week. I miss and love you all.

Love Elder Ellis

P.s. Miracles happen every day! We just have to recognize them and be open to experience them.

Here are a few more pics from Jon's mission...

"Me posing in Keukenhof. Yeah, there were tons of flowers."

"This is in Keukenhof."

"This is near Zwolle in Emmelord. We are beneath sea level."

"Now that is a real Dutch Windmill. These are all over the place. It's pretty cool."

"Elder Johnson and I decided to go to Germany. No JK... we went with some members who live close to the border."

I'll save more pictures for another post :)

Hello

2011-07-25T12:02:00.001-07:00

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

2011-07-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-12T07:28:00.001-07:00

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

2011-07-05T08:13:00.000-07:00

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

TT in Assen

2011-06-27T22:43:00.003-07:00

Well Hello!

First off, we had the TT going on here in Assen, all of you who are big motorcycle fans should know what that is. It is the biggest event of the year here in Assen and its an international motorcycle race. Around 130 thousand people came from all over the world. All kinds of languages. For three nights in a row they had festivals going on till like 2 or 3 in the morning with a few different stages set up in different parts of the city. The stage in the centrum is the biggest and that is right next to where we live, so I think you all know where I am going with this. Yeah, no sleep till 3, three nights in a row. Because we could not sleep we just sat out on the balcony and enjoyed the concerts. It was so loud as if we were right there and the stage was not even facing us. So many drunk people were running around that it was fun watching them from our balcony. Well anyway, back to missionary topics..... uhhh.. Well work was slow especially cause of the TT and all the drunk people. We had really good member appointments and they really spoil us here in Assen. We helped out a couple of members with moving some washing machines and a fridge. On Thursday we had a few hours to work with our Branch mission Leader who is only 21. So that was a blast, we did look ups and all that stuff, we than went and had dinner with him and while we were sitting just eating this couple walked up to us and started talking to us because they know us. Well the missionaries in general that is, they started telling us that we were wrong and lost in the wrong church and started throwing out some anti crap at us so I we just nice and politely answered their concerns and briefly explained their anti stuff but focused more on bearing testimony and made sure we did not bash them, we did however have a comeback for all the stuff they said. I was surprised how much I knew and of course the spirit was guiding us and telling us what to say. On Saturday was the actual TT race and you could hear the motorcycles in every part of the city cause the were that loud. We were with a member and he turned on the TV to see the race and it was already over but an American won. Yeah. Ben Spees or something like that. Sunday was really fun too. We had a little Lunch after church where we all just hung out and chatted. Its been a good week, just a little slow and I was tired a lot.

I love you all.

Love Elder Ellis

Well Hello Everybody

2011-06-20T22:35:00.001-07:00

My week has been great. Missionary work wise its been pretty slow. Last Tuesday was slow since my comp sprained his ankle so he had to rest some so we have really been able to get to know each other. He is a really cool guy. We have so much fun and laugh more than ever. When he was on the phone with another missionary I heard him say that he has never laughed so much on his mission. So that was cool to hear. Wednesday we were able to work a little more. We did finding and what not and than ate dinner with the branch Presidents Family. They are a really cool family and we had fun with them, also their young kinds are cute and just so funny. On Thursday an appointment with a new investigator fell through so we were a little bummed about that. On Friday we got a ride with the Van Komens down to Apeldoorn to go to a zone training. Zone training went well, we talked a lot about the spirit and getting appointments with all those we talk to. Its always a blast to meet up with all the other missionaries. We had fun and one of the members in Apeldoorn made the most Delicious sandwiches ever. He usually cooks for us when we are in Apeldoorn for zone trainings. After the training I went on X-changes with Elder Merrill who works up in Heerenveen. We rode up with the zone leaders since zone leaders, assistants to the president and senior couples are the only ones with cars, we normal missionaries have to bike everywhere. We worked hard in heerenveen and did some door to door contacting and than had a lesson with a really cool lady and her boy friend. It was so cool because I was the senior missionary cause Elder Merrill is 3 transfers younger than me. I felt so cool. A member went on joint teach with us and she is so cool and nice. After that appointment we went to her house to hang out with her family. Family Stein is really cool, we sat around and talked and just laughed and had fun. When we shared a spiritual message one of the daughters who is 17 shared an experience she had at efy and like bore her testimony. It was cool to see that there are youth who have testimonies and are so strong in the Gospel even in a little branch like Heerenveen. It is cool to see strong families in the Gospel. On Saturday we had another full day together in Heerenveen and we did a ton of finding and had some really cool conversations with people. We than took the bus to Groningen where we switched back to our companions. From there we rode the train back to Assen. Oh at the train station while we were waiting for our companions these 4 sorta drunk people approached us and asked us about our name tags. It turned out to be a good conversation and they were very funny so we just had fun talking to them. In this transfer I have really loosened up so I just love talking to people. On Sunday we went to church and there were only around 15 people in church if even. It was a nice meeting. I got to know that members a little better. Our Branch mission Leader is really cool and fun and he is our age so that makes it even better. We than ate rode out to one of the members to eat with them and they live really close to Germany so we drove in and looked around in Germany for a little. I was in Germany! We ate dinner with them and looked at google maps and showed them where we lived. It was cool. The daughter of that family was in Utah for an exchange year and met Jacob Schenk my awesome cousin who two of the people I have met hear in the Netherlands know. Her name is Roxan Luberink. We barely than caught our train and made it back to Assen just on time to go to an appointment. We met at a members house and had their friend come and we taught her and it was a very good lesson and she wants to get baptized so we set a date with her. We had a good week and it was just so much fun. Especially when I was in Heerenveen at the Steins house. No but seriously, its been a good week. The ipad2 is very cool. I love you all and miss you.

Love Elder Ellis

I'm in Assen

2011-06-14T21:10:00.001-07:00

Hey everybody!

Well first off I love being here in Assen with my new companion Elder Johnson. He is a really fun guy who will be going home after this transfer so he is a tad trunky. Last Tuesday we had a great district meeting and than met with the sweet Indonesian lady who will be getting baptized soon. She is so cool and I hope that I will be able to go to her baptism. We also had dinner that night with the branch presidents family. I was so full after since we were fed a ton at district meeting, a little at our investigator, and then with that family. After dinner we played a little basketball with the branch president and his son. On Wednesday we had transfer so I went with all my luggage to Assen. There we did some finding and after about an hour of knocking on doors a 22 year old guy asked us if we were Jehovah Witnesses, we said no so he let us in. We taught a really good lesson, Elder Johnson and I teach very good together. We have just been having so much fun together. On Thursday we had a lesson with one of the few investigators in Assen and it went very well. The week was good we just did finding and other missionary stuff. On Sunday I gave a talk in the branch and I it was about 13 minutes long and man that was me cutting it short. I could have stood up there for ever. The speaker after me did not take a lot of time so we finished sacrament meeting early, so I would have had time to give a long talk. The members there are very nice we got invited to eat both lunch and dinner with two different members. IT was very fun. Yesterday on Pday we had a district pday where we all got together the 8 of us and a member from Groningen to play soccer. Man it was so much fun. I am a little sore now but its not that big of a deal though. Elder Johnson might have sprained his ankle since it really hurts and he is limping. Yesterday was also a holiday so we could not e-mail or shop so we did that today. Man I love being a missionary. Thanks for all your testimonies and letters and e-mails and what not. I love you all.

Love Elder Ellis

Pics from Jon's Mission

2011-06-09T10:53:00.000-07:00

We were sent some pictures of Jon by the Van Komen's, a senior couple in his district for Mother's Day. I thought I'd add them to his blog :) I've been meaning to do it for some time now.

Twice a year the missionaries in Jon's mission get to attend the temple.

I'm guessing this is his district.

Jon eating raw herring... he said it was good.

Like I said, he actually liked it :)

We hear Jon keeps a pretty clean apartment... that's good to know :)

Jon is loving his mission! It's a blessing to us to know he is doing so well and growing so much in the gospel!

Transfer

2011-06-06T06:33:00.000-07:00

Hello

So lets start like this "I'm leaving Zwolle!!!!" I am so happy and so sad. I love Zwolle, the members are so amazing and nice, they really took care of me and of course my comp. The investigators we have are also so amazing. Two will hopefully be baptized this coming transfer. You all are probably wondering where I am going. Well I am going to a city 45 min away with the train in the same district named ASSEN. Yeah its kind of a funny name. "Its a funny name.. sure it is" My new companion is Elder Johnson and I will be his last companion. I have heard that he is super Truncky ( excited to go home and non stop thinking of home) so I'll have to make sure he works hard. He is cool though cause I already know him since he is in my district. Man I will miss Zwolle it's pretty much become my Home. I want to live her someday... no I probably won't but its a nice city. The address for my new apartment is Mercuriusplein 105, 9401 DH Assen, Nederland.

Well let's see, I've already talked about last Monday. On Tuesday we went to District meeting which was really fun cause our district is so awesome. The Van Komens are the best, like seriously, they spoil us with delicious food and I get to enjoy it even longer. Our branch mission leader in Zwolle hasn´t come to church for a while and I am very worried and concerned for him. He is such a cool guy. We had dinner with Family Spijkerman and they are also so awesome and it was a lot of fun eating with them. We went to an investigator and talked to him about Healthcare and especially in America, let's just say he must watch Glen Beck a lot. It was awesome. On Wednesday we did finding outside the church with a big board that had a world on it and explained Lehi´s travel/ Book of Mormon. We talked to a few people and had some really cool conversations. We visited one of the coolest and most faithful and dedicated church members ever. The 90 year old Bro Samboe, he comes to church every Sunday and we visit him once a week. We usually sing with him and look at pictures with him from when he was younger. He is so awesome and I will miss him. One of our super positive investigators with a baptismal date is having a hard time with a couple commandments and I can tell Satan is really trying to stop her from being baptized. OK just to say, All the members here in Zwolle are awesome. There is an investigator who has been investigating for 4-5 years and ever since I've been teaching he did not want to pray and always refused to pray so we always just prayed and at our last appointment right as one of us was about to pray I had a feeling to ask him to pray and after I asked him he looked at me and said "What!" I was so scared that he would get mad at me so I humbly asked again "Do you want to pray?" He just said "Is Goed" (is good) and he than said an amazing prayer. We were so happy, I don't think I've ever smiled so much during a prayer. We went to a centrum for people fleeing other countries and we had some really good conversations. On Saturday we were a little disobedient cause we stayed at an appointment too long so we got home late. Sunday was a very good day. A man came who was referred by our branch mission leader. He was very interested and really participated in church. The Fast and Testimony meeting was great and I bore my testimony again and am so happy. We went to a members house after church for a little party for a baby blessing. There were a lot of non members and we talked to a lot of people especially about being missionaries and what we do. I talked to an American guy who is a Chiropractor and there were two other Chiropractors and I totally forgot to ask for an adjustment. My Comp and I did a presentation and explained the Priesthood and why the father of the baby was able to give the blessing and not a preacher. We also ate dinner with them. You can forget my study this morning cause I was so anxious to know where I am going that I just sat around freaking out. Elder Kettler has been an awesome Companion and we have got to know each other a little too well, like we finish each others sentences and I always know what he is thinking and he knows what I am thinking. I have learned a lot from him and we had a lot of fun. Man Zwolle has been my mission so far, I can't imagine being in another city. Ahh Crazy. I have to know that this Gospel is true and that Jesus Christ lives, both he and our Heavenly Father love us so much that they have reached out to us in love and called a prophet 190 years ago to restore the church of Jesus Christ. We have 15 Apostles today and one of them has been called to be the president of the church. I love the gospel and Our heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I love being a missionary. Its the best experience I've had so far. I get to talk to so many wonderful people and see the gospel bless so many. I love this work, its fun, a learning experience, and a spiritual booster. I love my Mission.

Ilove you all and thanks for all the support.

Love Elder Ellis

Once again my new address:

Mercuriusplein 105

9401 DH Assen

Netherlands/ Nederland

Another week in the mission

2011-05-30T17:32:00.001-07:00

Hello

How is everyone doing? I am doing great. I left my planner at the church so I am not sure what happened last week so I'll just try to remember out of my head. Well start with today. I am in Groningen for a district P-day, we played basketball and soccer and are now e-mailing. We will then continue to play sports. Its so much fun cause I have such an awesome district. The Van Komens (senior couple) are so awesome. Last Monday was a good P-day cause we were able to really clean our apartment and get some needed things done. District meeting was good like always and we had some really good lessons again. It sucks that I am so slow at typing cause all the other missionaries next to me are typing so fast. So they can say twice as much as me, but I try. We had a really cool lesson with a Jehovah Witness couple. They were super nice and we learned a lot from each other. On Tuesday we went on X-changes so I worked with Elder Guanuna in Heerenveen. We had a lot of fun, rapping with each other, joking and doing missionary work. On Wednesday we had a sweet lesson with Stella a lady who will soon be baptized and the joint teach we had was really good and had awesome experiences to share. On Thursday night we went and played soccer with the young men in our branch to help them be strong in the faith. It was so much fun. It started raining but that did not stop us. On Friday we ate dinner with this really cool couple who are so nice to everybody. On Saturday we had dinner with a Jovo investigator who is so cool but has some really hard questions. He is really nice and wants to know the truth. Sunday we had a good church service and ate lunch all the way in Emmeloord which is like 1 hour bus ride away. We ate with the junior Van Andel family. It was cool. The rest of the day could have been better but it was kind of a drag. So pretty ineffective. This coming week will probably be my last week in Zwolle. I will let you all know what happens next P-Day. I finally cut my hair today. yeah. Well I don't have much else to say. I love you all.

Love Elder Ellis

I'm Alive

2011-05-23T06:31:00.001-07:00

Hey

Sorry that I did not write last week its just when we went to write our e-mails we found out that the Library would be closed till the following week so we went to another library the next day but it turns out that its from the same business chain. I am fine, not hurt or in any way not doing good. So I am doing great. Well I don't even remember what happened last week, hmmm.... let me see. Well we just had a ton of awesome lessons and actually had an excellent week. We almost reached the standard of excellence by one member present lesson. We could not get one to save our lives. Actually on Sunday we were trying to figure out how we can teach someone with a member present when an inactive member walked up to us and started talking to us, I was about to pull someone walking by in to our conversation and teach with the inactive member present. It did not work out. Man the members here are so good at cooking, I mean they just spoil us. I always eat so much cause its just so good. We did service for a lady who has had the missionaries do service for her the last 30 years. She told us that she will not be baptized. We had to tell her that we can no longer do service for her because she is using us and she just said "It doesn't matter, in a year when you are both gone I will make contact with the new missionaries to come help me." She is a super nice lady and gives us food, its just we can spend our time better. Our time is precious. One of our investigators found some info on the Internet so we had to explain that and it was a tough lesson telling him that we are the only church that holds authority ( the priesthood) given from Jesus Christ. A couple of investigators dropped us but we made up by finding more. Yeah. Church was really good last week. We met with an inactive member who is American so we heard some sweet stories from him, he is a really cool guy.

Now for this last week.

Well it started good and on Wednesday we had a zone training which was really good. It was really fun. We have a senior couple in our zone named Bush. So he kept making jokes like "I went hunting with my uncle George" Or he told stories about his uncle and was like "My other uncle, not Uncle George" It was another really busy week and just so awesome. One of our investigators Stella who is actually really close to being baptized is so awesome and sweet. She gave us some food to go and it was this delicious Indonesian food. We had a sweet appointment with a young dutch family who came to the open house. They have two little kids and would be perfect. We taught them the restoration and when we asked when we could come back they said that they just wanted to know what we believe and that they really like family home evening so they will try doing that in their church. Hmmm well we or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at least inspired them. cool. We had two really cool nice Muslim guys pull us over and had a good conversation. I really respect them and they respect us. Sunday was just awesome, we had 4 investigators stay for sacrament meeting and had also two come just for the first two hours. It was really good. The rest of Sunday was hard cause for a change we had no appointments whatsoever. So we did a ton of finding but did not have much motivation. It was good though, it just felt like a super long day. Today is such a beautiful day. We did a ton of cleaning, I had a good workout, and we get to e-mail. We also have district meeting tomorrow which I am really looking forward to. I am doing awesome and I really appreciate all of your letters and prayers. The first Sunday of June I and all the Europe missions and members in Europe will be fasting for missionary work and have been asked ( the members) to bring at least one friend to church for every week in June. I would like you all to also participate. This will be amazing and I know if we all do that that the work will increase. I love you all and am so happy to be a servant of the lord. I know that my redeemer lives and that his church has been restored through his servant the prophet Joseph Smith. I know that families can be forever. In the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love Elder Ellis

Hello

2011-05-09T19:25:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody.

Well its been another good week. I love my new district and we always have so much fun. Unfortunately we had a positive investigator drop us. He learned a lot from us but wants to believe his own way. There is a young guy well in his 20's who is really cool and is very religious. He is going to college and he asked from himself if we could come more to talk to him so we can see he is interested. Family De Jonge is really cool and so nice. The Father of that family is our Branch President and a cop. We had a good time with them. When we ate dinner with them a friend of his came who has been to Arizona and Vegas and also Death Valley. So we talked about that and it brought back memories of the beautiful desert. Even though I've only been to Death Valley once and that to pick up two ginormous Full grown palm trees, also to drink a date shake. Even if the ride home took 3 times as long it was fun. In our consecrated hours of Finding we seem to almost always find someone who has a little interest. May 5th was a big day here in the Netherlands. It was Freedom day or something like that. They had one of the biggest festivals in all of the Netherlands here in Zwolle. That not only means that there were young people everywhere ( 100 of thousands) and let me tell you there were so many cute girls. Music was super loud you could hear it where ever you went. Also everyone ended up being drunk by the end of the day. These two guys in their 20's wanted us to go party with them so we did....no I'm just kidding. We instead started talking about Jesus Christ and they to my surprise really liked talking about that. It was so hard cause I really wanted to go to the Festival but I was like no its probably expensive. The next day I found out that it was free. I could have talked to so many people about the gospel and rocked out to the music...no jk. This Indonesian lady is making a lot of progress and is so sweet. She makes us really good food. Unfortunately it turns out that she might have Leukemia. On Sunday we had the coolest lady from the Dutch Antilles with her fiancee. They liked it. 3 investigators in church. Also a family from Alpine Utah came. As we were talking it turned out that they know Jacob Schenk. Hahah what a small world. Their name is the Whales. They are the neighbors of Elder Leashman or something like that. Who is serving in Austria. After church we found a really cool guy and he let us in to talk more, he wants us to come back. And then we waited for our families to call us and we were so excited and nervous to talk to them. It was a very special Mothers day.Thank you so much for all the support. I love you all.

Love Elder Ellis

Yellow

2011-05-02T06:31:00.001-07:00

Well

Its been another great week, in the mission there were a lot of changes and Zwolle just stayed the same except for the work here is doing really good. We are teaching around 20 lessons every week usually more. The members are so great and feed us really good food. We had 3 investigators in church and it was such a spiritual meeting. We spent an hour today hardcore cleaning and there is still so much to clean. I have no time. I had a really good exchange with Elder Guanuna and he is new so I got to experience being the older missionary. We taught some really good lessons. Unfortunately we had to drop a few of our investigators but we also found more so its all good again. On Saturday it was Koninginnen dag which is the queens day so everyone wears orange and my comp and I both wore orange ties. I don't have so much time to write my email. It has been really nice weather. I love you all.

Elder Ellis

Hello everybody!

2011-04-25T07:36:00.000-07:00

Well let me start like this..... I am once again staying in Zwolle with Elder Kuttler. I am actually really excited because we are seeing so much success. I think we have found a few who are ready to be baptized, but I do not want to get my hopes up. I just love seeing people apply the gospel into their lives and see it change them. I love the gospel and am so excited to share it with everyone. This past week has been great. The weather is so beautiful and its been warm for like a week straight. Everything is green and alive and flowers everywhere. On Tuesday we were able to go to the Temple of the Lord. It was so nice to go there since I only can go twice a year. It was so much fun to see all the missionaries from all over, well from all over our mission. After the temple we had a picnic and then a zone conference. We then went to the famous Keukenhof where they have all the beautiful flowers and tulips. It was very fun. We have been teaching a lot of great lessons, and the spirit has been very strong. We have too many investigators to teach that we barely have time to find new investigators. Two of our investigators who we found at the open house are really progressing and are coming to church regularly. One of them made us Indonesian food and it was delicious. We had interviews with the president here in Zwolle and I ate a raw herring (fish) for the first time. It was actually pretty tasty. On Sunday we had five investigators in church. Zwolle is going through a Renaissance. We hung out with the branch president's family and then had a Sweeet barbecue with family Knarren, a really cool family here in the branch. Today we found out that this transfer is really crazy, there will be a lot of changes in the mission.

I love you all and miss you. Time is limited and I must go. Elder Ketter is awesome.

Hallo

2011-04-18T08:21:00.001-07:00

Well to first say that this was also a really good week and we really saw success. All week long we have been handing out Invitations for our open house. We looked all the members who are inactive in our area. So there is a guy who is so much like me, so his mother says and he himself. So I think that's cool, too bad we can't just hangout. We taught some really good lessons with the spirit. You know the week was good and all but the highlight was Saturday when we had the open house. Elder Crittenden and Elder Guanuna came down to help us, almost all the members were there. We were not sure as to how many people would come. When we officially started it people just started coming and Elder Kettler and Elder Crittenden started teaching about the Book of Mormon because they had a presentation set up while the other Elder and I stood around and answered questions and handed out materials. It was a beautiful day and we as Elders taught 30 lessons with member present and around 100 people came throughout the 5 hours that we had it for. It was so cool and fun. We got 7 new investigators from it and half of them are really positive. On Sunday two of the new investigators came to church and stayed for all three hours and really liked it and said that they felt something really good. Also on Sunday we were going from door to door in this richer neighborhood and talked to 20 who had no interest. We were about to leave when I saw one more house in the corner which was bigger than all the other houses, first thought was 'na they are to rich' but than I felt the spirit prompting me to go contact them and I had a feeling that they would listen and that they would want to know more. A women opened the door and says that she knows that we are Mormons because her husband was in salt lake city before. She than excepted to learn more about the book of Mormon. We will come back in two weeks to see what she thinks. I hope that she will know that it is a true book. Today is actually not a P-Day except for writing my e-mail, because we are going to the temple tomorrow and than keukenhof which is the place with all the tulips. Well that's about it and that I will probably leave Zwolle in a week and a half. I love you all.

Elder Ellis

Hey I'm Still Alive

2011-04-12T07:50:00.000-07:00

Hello

I am sorry that I did not write yesterday, it was just hard after saving a baby from a burning house to get to a computer on time. No I am just kidding. So we went to the Library yesterday and they said that their computers did not work, they are also the only library in Zwolle that is open on Mondays that we know of. Yeah so I am writing today. I am sorry if any of you were worried but you don't ever need to worry because whatever happens happens and I'll be fine. So Last Monday night we had a good lesson with an investigator who supposedly did not like being taught (according to the teaching record) but we have been teaching her and she likes it and even wants to pray to see if what we say is true. Tuesday we just had the sweetest District meeting again and after, we went on exchanges. I went back to Zwolle with Elder Crittenden. We had a really good hour of finding going along some doors. We taught 3 lessons in one hour and we taught in perfect unity, the spirit was so strong and we just had fun. One of the guys we taught opened the door and started talking bad about us and that we are from Salt Lake, we however just asked him well what have you heard and turned it into a conversation, he ended up softening his heart and we had a good talk. He changed from being mad to happy and joking around with us, even if he did not want to accept our message now we sure made his day better. We went to an investigators house and listened to some of the rap that he makes, it was sweet ( yeah I know I sould not listen to music like that but it was for an investigator). We had a sweet lesson, well more of a what we all want to do in the future. It was just such a fun lesson. We than rushed to the next appointment to a sweet surfer guy. We ate dinner with him and talked about the book of Mormon. So Elder Crittenden got home a little late and around at 10 before we were about to go to bed someone rang on our door and I picked up the phone thingy and a voice said "Its Elder Kettler let me in" He than ran up and started telling us that Elder Crittendens Comp, a greany, ran away and that he has the phone. We like freaked out and went to call the Mission President but he than said "No I am just kidding" What really happened was that Elder Kettler and Elder Guanuna left their phone at a members house and when they were on their way home they realized that Elder Crittenden who was with me had the keys to their apartment. So they could not call us so they just came to Zwolle. The other apartment is over an hour away in Heerenveen or something like that. So we were laughing about what happened and talked a little to loud that one of our neighbours came and complained. We had a sick sleepover. The next morning we just had a big study together. After X-changes Elder Kettler got sick and at the end of the week I got it too. We have been working on giving invitations out to inactive members for the open house for our new church building. It was a good rest of the week and yesterday was a really warm day. Well I miss you all love you all.

Love Elder Ellis

Noch eine Woche

2011-04-04T07:34:00.001-07:00

Hello

Man it has been such wonderful weather and actually really warm, except for a couple of days when it rained. The district I am in is so cool. It may be small but it is awesome. We always have to take a train up to Groningen which is an hour away but when we get there the van Komens (the senior couple) always have a delicious lunch prepared or I help till it is prepared. We had a great lesson with two of our investigators and one of them is 15 and wants to be a rapper so I think that's awesome cause I see myself a few years ago. We had a sweet lesson with a guy who owns a skate shop and who has backpacked the world and I would love to do that also but instead I just backpack the Netherlands. It is always sad when you have to drop someone because they are not making progress or are no longer interested. We had a few this week. Just to be honest we have really cool investigators and I am so happy for them that they are excepting the message from Jesus Christ. One of our investigators came to 30 minutes of the Saturday general conference. General Conference was so cool and it was like the Superbowl of missionaries. There were so many cool things said and I felt the spirit strong and sitting in Apeldoorn with almost all the other missionaries from our zone and Elder Brown who was my MTC comp. It was fun.

I have been asking myself "Do I support the Prophet and the Apostles and all the other general authorities? Then why don't I do all the things they say. It is revelation from God." I am now working on applying all the things they have counseled on in my life. It won't happen in a day but it is a process that will take this whole life time. We are not on this world to be good people but to become perfect like Jesus Christ. I know we cannot become perfect while on this earth but we can work and do to come closer. I like how in conference it was said that being a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is not easy, that is because much is required of us. Well I am learning how to work harder on becoming more Christ like and am setting my faith on the foundation of Christ. As I was writing my email to the Mission president someone next to me was reading what I wrote on my screen and he saw"The Book of Mormon" so he asked about it and then like him and another guy where kind of talking bad about us and our faith around a lot of other people also being in the library but I just thought of the wonderful truths that I know of and I got a warm feeling inside and I felt sorrow for them, my comp and I tried to share the wonderful message with them but it did not work. I however did not feel ashamed. Why? Because I know what we were sharing with them was true. Its like in the dream of Lehi where the people who partook of the fruit looked around in shame but we have no need to be ashamed. I am happy to be on a mission and to have the gift of the constant companion that is only through the power of the Priesthood to be able to be given. I Love this work. I know that Jesus Christ lives and that he has restored his church again through the prophet Joseph Smith, I know that this missionary work is the most important work besides temple work. We are all missionaries like it was said in the conference "something like this "Share the gospel and if use words". I will let people learn from the example I am in living the Gospel, I leave my testimony with all of you in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

Elder Ellis

My Best Week Ever

2011-03-28T07:29:00.000-07:00

Hello.

Well...... so... I had such a good week that I will not be able to describe it.

Sorry

Love Elder Ellis

No jk.

OK so Monday was good I started the day and the new transfer very good and obedient. We had an awesome lesson with one of our investigators and he is a very smart man so we really have to teach with the spirit and I know that he felt it. He wants to believe and is willing to work for it. Tuesday we go to district meeting and and on the way we talked to two women who were just let out of prison. Now at first I was like uhhh.... but we set all judgement aside and it turned out that they were very nice women and they had decided to start over the day they were let out, they said its weird that they ran into us on a day like that. One of the women wants us to teach her more so we gave her info through to the Elders that cover her area. District meeting was very cool and Elder Crittenden, our new districts leader is a very good leader. The zone leaders were also there so we had a blast, oh and we got a greeny in our district so that's even better. The Van Komens made us delicious lunch again. Well to the highlight of the week. Back in Zwolle all our appointments fell through after district meeting so we decided to look up this guy that we talked to on the street a couple weeks ago. HE was home and wanted his mom and his brother to join. We taught such a spiritual lesson and actually the mom was investigating the church 17 years ago before her first son was born. She almost got baptized and now in the last little while she has been praying to know which church she needed to go to and we showed up. Its a sign. The entire week just has been so good and we taught a ton of lessons and almost got standards of excellence. Well the other highlight of the week (and don't get me wrong the entire week was awesome) Sunday. The mom and both her sons came to church and we set a baptismal date for the mom and the son that we contacted on the street. It was so cool. Also we had a baptism after church in Apeldoorn from the kid of a member family and so many non members came and the zone leaders and an inactive lady who is so cool and she was baptized exactly yesterday 12 years ago. It was so cool. We also taught these two college girls..... well its been a great week. So great. I love you all and the Lord has been blessing me for the hard work and I love this Gospel and being on a mission and to see the Gospel bless others. I gotta go.

Love Elder Ellis

p.s. Schenk Family, Thank you so much for the pictures.

I am doing great/Elder Ellis' week

2011-03-21T07:38:00.000-07:00

Hello

Ok well this last week was a really good week. So we had a really good district meeting and I helped cook lunch but I actually just stirred the food. Elder Van Komen and his wife make the best food. Man our ward mission leader is so cool and has a very strong testimony so at correlation meetings its always very spiritual. Man so we just had a good week. We had to bike out of Zwolle somewhere I've never been to pick up a package for my comp. Oh and its been really nice weather the last few days and everyone is outside going on walks sitting in the centrum and cafes and stuff like that. We ate Foo foo with family Ajubi which is my ward mission leaders family and its some african dish and its pretty good. I can't go into too much detail but we had some really good lessons this week and the spirit was really strong even our investigators felt it. Oh man so we went to look up this referral we had which the train did not go to this town and the bus did but we thought it was only 2 kilometers away so we started walking and it took us 1 hour and a half just one way which was a little over 5 kilometers one way. So we were tired and just sore but the guy really wanted the BoM so we gave it to him. We just had more good lessons and some good finding time. On Sunday one of our investigators who since I've been in Zwolle have been trying to get to church came and the Sunday school lesson was the best lesson ever and so spiritual and perfect for him. He liked it and I don't think I've ever payed so close attention in any sunday school class. Everything that was said was like a concern that he had. Sunday was my 5 month mark and I can't believe time is going by so fast. Oh we also went to another church after our own for an investigator we have and to be honest my companion and I really felt the spirit when everyone including us was singing, but unfortuanatly when the preacher started preaching we felt kind of uncomfortable because he was missinterpreting the bible and telling people that we should give our mony to the church and not worry about where it goes. It was a nice service though. We had a fun dinner appointment sunday evening where we just laughed a lot. Well I am doing great and I am learning so much. I love you all and I know that the Church of Jesus Christ is on the earth today.

Love Ellis Ellis

Hello to all....

2011-03-14T11:04:00.000-07:00

Well first of all there has been a huge change for transfers.......NOT. I am staying here in Zwolle which is actually great, because there is a Member Family where one of there kids is getting baptized and I wanted to be there. Man we had a sweet time with our ward mission leader. We went finding together and it was pretty cool. The first guy we contacted was a member from Nigeria and he is visiting someone here in Zwolle. My bike has been broken so I got another bike from one of the Senior missionaries. Oh man we worked with one member of our ward pretty much all day. We went to an appointment at 2 and than got a tour of the History Geneology Archive from an investigator who works there. There were some really old books. They had a manuscript thats over 1000 years old, and all the news papers from WW2, and more. We even ate dinner with the same member. He is just so cool and helps us a ton. We had an awesome Zone Training in Apeldoorn and we actually forgot our phone so when we got to Apeldoorn we had no clue how to get to the church so we asked someone if we could use his phone. Man I think I eat noodles every day. Unfortunatly we had to drop one of our investigators cause he was not progressing and even said that he will not change. One of our investigators has had a concern that we finally figured out. He was stuck on the bible. We are now working on solving that. So we biked out to Hattem which is this really old sweet european city. It was a warm beautiful day and we talked to a lot of people at their doors and as we were walking these 14 year old kids (2 girls and 2 boys) were like making fun of us so I started talking to them in english and they had no clue as to what we were saying. Well we switched to Dutch and they asked us what we were doing and they took a picture with us and of my name tag. It was pretty funny. We talked to a lady who does not believe in God because she is mad at him. We talked to her in a very loving way and she even got emotional. It was a spiritual conversation. So at Church they asked me to give the opening prayer again, this was my second time. Crazy. Well everything is going great. I also found out about Japan and it really saddens my heart to see this. I hope that things will go better for them. Well I love you all and I love my Mission. I am having so much fun. Its hard but worth it. I hope you are all doing good.

Love Elder Ellis

Hello my fellow Latter-day Saints

2011-03-07T11:32:00.000-08:00

Where do I begin... Well lets say last week on monday for P-day we played soccer in the evening with the young men and that was so much fun, I am a little out of practice. I was sore for the next couple days. Totally worth it though. Man at our district meetings we have this senior couple the van Komens, and they always cook for us and it is so delicious. We are teaching the older man and it is very spiritual and he has a strong testimony of Jesus Christ. We brought a member and they got a long right away. It seems that right now we are teaching a lot of smokers cause we always smell like smoke cause their houses are filled with smoke. We eat lunch with an older couple that speak german and they make really good like traditional german food. it is so good. They had their tv on at first and it showed skispringen and that reminded me of all the memories I had when I was younger and we only had 3 channels on tv so during the winter all I could watch was winter sports. We went to help one of our investigators with her floor, we walked in and her two younger sisters (22, 19) were there and also her good friend. We taught them all and they are all interested and we actually have an appointment for tonight. So awesome, they also want me to rap for them but we will see. This one investigator who we have visited 4 times always wears his pants low and he is like 50. Now he gets up a lot while we teach to grab random things cause I think he is always drunk and his entire butt shows. Its kind of .. no really nasty. We had a lot of success finding this week but we mostly just talked to really cool people who however have no further interest for us to come back. for the first time someone let us in from going from door to door. They were so nice. My bike broke last week so I am on my 5th bike. Luckily I just got hand-me-downs. Now I am borrowing a bike so I need to buy one. We did a mini MTC for the youth well the youth leaders, we were just invited to talk about and share mission stories. It was so much fun and we just had a great time with the youth. We went all the way out to Emmen again for a member appointment but after having been on the train for an hour we got a text that it won't go through. So we just looked up some guy who does not live at the address that we have. And since we were already there we ate at Burger King while trying not to watch the music videos that are playing on tvs on every wall. It was great. Church was great and I blessed the sacrament in Dutch for the first time. Oh and I bore my testimony again. This time I was able to say a lot more. The weather has been great and sunny the last couple of days. So awesome. Its still a little cold. Right now there is a guy in the library who always is here when we are here and he laughs the entire time while either reading the normal newspaper or while on the computer, the weird thing is he always looks at me and then laughs and says something I can't understand cause his voice is deep and he mumbles. I am doing great and my testimony has been growing a lot. I love my mission and I am having a lot of fun. I miss you all and love you all.

Love Elder Ellis

My Week

2011-02-28T07:03:00.000-08:00

Well Hello Again,

This last week was really awesome. I think the most effective day I've had so far was my P-day on monday. We just had a really good, nice chillaxing P-day till after dinner. We had an appointment with a member for just like 15 minutes, than we had 2 appointments at the same time so we went on splits with some members. Both lessons went really well and the spirit was strong. We than had another member lesson. 4 lessons in one evening. On wednesday we had a really cool church tour with an investigator and she wants to get baptized but not sure yet when cause she does not want to rush into anything. We talked to some interresting people this week. There is a member who is over 80 and we visit him a couple times a week and sing hymns with him either in dutch or spanish usually in spanish cause thats the only book he usually has. I went on an exchange with my district leader and so we went al the way to groningen to exchange and there we ate luch together which was way fun. We went to the centrum in Zwolle to do some contacting and ran into a large group of about 60 people from another church. They started throwing trash at us and spit on us and yelled at us.... no I'm just kidding, but a couple of young girls came up to us and asked us why our nametags are black with white letters and not white with black letters. That than turned into a asking us a ton of questions about our believs conversation. Some of the other people noticed and joined so we were circled by about 10 people, all asking us questions and trying to proof us wrong. There was a guy from lithuania who is american, he talked to me trying so hard to break my testimony and threw out all these random things about our church and I answered the questions but I mostly testified of what I know is true. Not once did they testify or say that they know something to be true. I had the spirit with me. Oh and in the background the rest of the people were all gathered together while a couple of them were yelling stuff like "Repent, Repent, have faith in Jesus Christ and you will be saved". We just really had a good week. Oh we had stake conference which was really cool cause we got so see other Elders from our Zone and a ton of members and there were quite a few cute girls but that does not matter right now. Oh and one girl that looks exactly like icarly. We knocked on one door on sunday and it was an old man who let us in and he believs the restoration to be true and that the things we told him are true but he also feels like he has lived his way since he was 7 and does not want to change religion. But he is now an investigator. Well I am doing great and I am really relying on the lord. I love this work and the people. I love my mission and am learning a ton about everything. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is on the earth and that the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is the true church of God. Man my testimony is growing so much and it all makes so much sense when you listen to the spirit and ponder about it. I miss you all.

Love,

Elder Ellis

Hello

2011-02-21T06:52:00.001-08:00

I am doing great and awesome. We had an awesome lesson last monday and the spirit was strong. The week was not as succesful in numbers but it was great in learning. I was on exchange and that was great with Elder Wilcken and he is a good missionary. And also tall. After working with him that day my neck hurt from looking up all day. jk. We found a new investigator who was a former and he is studying theology and is Curacoan. that went well. Oh we also had Zone training and it was really cool. We learned a new technique called QGCs but it is very secret. I am just kidding I just don't have enough time to explain. We helped an Afgani Family move into a house but more like hanging up curtains. They are now investigators. sweet. One day we spent traveling all day. We went all the way out to Emmen and looked up referrals and only contacted 1 out of 5 it was a wasted day, but it had to be done. Sunday was awesome cause my companion and I taught pristhood in dutch and it went so good. Sue Heina a girl in our branch gave her farewell talk and we had so many visiters which missionaries love. We talked for almost an hour after church to both members and non members. It was crazy. Well and now I am writing my e-mail. Thats all for the week.

Love you all

Elder Ellis

Well hello again

2011-02-14T07:16:00.000-08:00

This week has been great. Our numbers have been going up and we talked to a lot more people and have had more success. I unfortunataly don't have as much time to write today. But it was funny this week there was a guy who we contacted and he started getting mad and yelling at us saying that if we believe in Jesus Christ we should go help the dying kids in like Africa instead of telling people about Jesus. He laughed at us and I wish I could have pushed him and just rebuked him but I smiled and just went to the next door. The next day we get another guy like the first but he told us that if we gave him the Book of Mormon that he would burn it and that we need to stop reading it. He had very weird and funny facial expressions and it was just hilarious cause he did not let us say a word and finally I said well sir that is your opinion but he just got more intense right in my face and I tried not to laugh. He said if you believe in Jesus to stop reading the Book of Mormon. He does not get it. As we walked away he stood by his door watching us and quietly saying stop reading. So we had to leave that neighborhood and we just burst out into laughter. We also had some good lessons with the spirit. Made some good appointments. The members are still so awesome and they support us and feed us and make us fat. haha I love it. Elder Kuttler and I get along pretty well and are having a lot of fun especially in our apartment. It was a good week and this one will be even better. I am so excited. Oh Happy Valentines to everybody.

Love

Elder Ellis

Alrighty then...

2011-02-07T07:22:00.000-08:00

Here we go. So the beginning of the week was really cool getting to spend a few more days with Elder Wells as a missionary. It was fun, he is a, well was a very good Missionary. I did not realize how much I learned from him till he was gone. even though we are very different in many ways, I really look up to him and appreciate his patiance that he had with me. I learned so much. My new companion even said that the way I contact is like Elder Wells... haahah. Well I am feeling really good about my dutch but now my german is suffering because of it. Well thats what happens. This week we did a ton of finding (with my new companion) but did not really find anyone who is interested except for a few. I am also learning a lot about my self and am noticing things about my self that I want to change and improve on because of working with my new companion. We get along great but for some reason when we go contacting it does not go as great. Oh his name just means something bad in Dutch. Sorry that I jump around so much its just I have a lot on my mind and not much time. This week has been VERY interesting. Man it really sucks when people don't show for appointments or are not home. Oh because I took over Zwolle meaning I know the city and my new companion does not I feel a lot more responsibility and I am doing a lot of the phone calls now and I can actually understand the people. I always get to lead and be in charge of the map. Yeah. Fun. Well It has been super windy the last couple of days that when we bike somewhere it takes us twice as long to get there. It nearly knocked me off my bike a few times. Crazy. Well I don't have any crazy storys yet but they will come.....trust me. It is good to hear from all of you (both america and Austria) and I am very glad that things are going well. My cousin in austria had a baby.. how crazy. I can not even imagine that because all I can think of is this life right now. Oh it was way cool I bore my testimony at church again and this time I could say exactally what I wanted to say cause my dutch is better. There is a lady in my branch who has a way sweet dialect and so when we sing, because she sings loud I try to sing like her. I know that sounds weird but it sounds so cool. Once again time is not a friend of Missionary work. I am so busy and then there are times when we can't think of what to do cause appointments fall through and yet we find a ton to do. Those of you preparing for Missions, do it now, how I wish I was better prepared. I love hearing from home about how people are coming closer to the Lord. That is so important cause Why are we on Earth? Well Time is about up and I got to go. I miss you all. I love getting mail but don't feel forced. By the way I am sorry if I don't write as much back its just hard to find time to write. I love you all.

Elder Ellis

Well Hello Again

2011-01-31T13:01:00.000-08:00

This week are transfers and I am staying in Zwolle! My new companion will be Elder Kuttler but here in the mission his nametag says Elder Kettler because there is a funny story behind that. It has been really good serving with Elder Wells and I will miss him and I have learned a lot from him. Earlier this week I got sick so I've been working all week to recover and am still working on it. We had a sweet lesson with a guy from Togo and he really seems interested. Missionary work is defianatly super hard and when people say its the hardest thing in the world but the best thing they wer not lying. It can be really hard to have to go out when its cold and when no one wants to listen but once you find some one who is ready to receive the gospel its the best thing in the world and you just feel the love of God. Well for some reason there is so much happening but yet I can't think of to much to say. I am still waiting for those Mission Miracles. They will come because now that Elder Wells has trained me, Elder Kettler and I are gonna tear up Zwolle. Zwolle will explode with the gospel that we'll have to get an even bigger church building. Yep thats about it. We are biking hardcore all the time. There is sooo much work to be done here and all over the world, we need so many more missionaries because just in Zwolle are like 150 thousand people or so and two missionaries, on average we talk to 150 people per week and its super hard to talk to everybody cause we are so busy. I love you all.\

Elder Ellis

Hello

2011-01-24T08:28:00.000-08:00

Well I totally ran out of time today because pdays are too short. So I can only say a few things. Its always good to write home and to here from family. In Zwolle I am doing pretty good. I went on exchanges on friday and had two eating appointments in a row both really good. I started getting a little sick on saturday and really sick over night so we had to stay home from church. Today I am feeling better but still pretty sick. We looked at some windmills and climbed an old church tower with 236 steps. well this is all the time I have because I have a dinner appointment that I have to go to so I miss you all BYE

Elder Ellis

Hey

2011-01-17T09:48:00.000-08:00

Well Hello

I am sorry that I won't be able to write to much today. I kinda ran out of time. Well everything is going great over here and I am meeting all kinds of people. Like a week ago I contacted a guy and asked him what he thinks the purpose of life is and he just walked away a little frustrated. A few days later we passed him and he turned around and walked right up to me a foot away from my face with alcohol breath right in my face and said that he has been thinking about what I asked him and he went on for like 3 minutes non stop telling me that I won't find that answer and that I should stop looking for an answer because he has been looking but realized that if you can't find an answer that you should get rid of the question. And he than just walked away. So there are some strange people. We are teaching a guy from Curacao who was found when Elder Demoss a long time ago played his bagpipe. The man wanted to give the Elders money but they gave him a Book of Mormon instead. They lost contact after a few lessons and we found him again. Super cool guy. The members here in Zwolle are so cool and nice they really take care of us. We also had zone conference this week and it was really cool to see all the other missionaries and Elder Andrews, Elder Jones and Sister Rich who were in my MTC group. The food is always amazing. The day after zone conference Elder Wells and I went to the stake yearly planning session where all the leaders from the whole stake were. We had to represent our mission. No worries though we did not have to say anything we just had to know what was going on to be able to report to the President. It was so cool and it felt like another zone conference because they really want to focus on missionary work. Our new church building here in Zwolle was packed. Well on a mission there is not enough time at all. This week I have to go to Brussels and I get to see my MTC group cause we have to take care of some legality stuff. I love it here. Yesterday we contacted someone at his door and he is not religeous but just the night before he wonderd if there was a god and than we show up so he felt the spirit super strong now we just have to see what happens. I don't have more time sorry. I love you all and i am sorry if I cannot write any individual E-mails. I read everyones e-mails but I don't have time to write back.

My addresse right now is

Rommestraat 79

8015 AS Zwolle

Nederland

I will most likely be in Zwolle for a couple more transfers and if not I get mail that was sent to the wrong apartment at district, zone or any other meeting.

Thank you!

Elder Ellis

Groningen District

2011-01-11T22:21:00.000-08:00

Elder Ellis' first district - Groningen District

We hardly recognized him at first... he looks like a red head in this photo :) But that's definitely his smile and big personality!

Well Hello

2011-01-10T12:11:00.000-08:00

Its that time of the week again and it feels like yesterday that I sat here writting my e-mail. I am very glad that my truck was able to be sold and that was around what I expected to get rid of it for. Make sure Devon gets what he needs to make up for what he did for me. I have no time. Like I thought a day had 24 hour but I must have been wrong cause time just is the worst enemy for missionaries. I also think its funny that what you guys know about last week changes so fast. like I'll have an investigator and the next day he gets dropped and than its like what? what ever. So all my clothes are fitting good and I feel bad for complaining at first but its all good now. Oh before I forget can you write Dylan Lawter to send him Lauren Burgess' address or did I already ask you this? Hmm. Well School is back in over here so Zwolle is something completely different now ( where were all the people over the holidays?) Trains are packed and so are buses. Mostly girls cause there are more girls studying than guys it seems. Or guys just drive cars IDk. I went to a Sinter Klas museum which must have been the smallest museum in the wrold it was under someones store in a like ww2 type of jew hiding place. It was tiny but there was a large collection of items that have anything to do with Sinter Klas which is the Dutch Santa Clauss you could say except he comes on Dec 6 with zwarte pete. A little different over here. We talk to some interesting people and most have no time or don't believe in God. On Friday we had our interviews with the President it felt so good to see him and his wife. I learned a lot from that district meeting. We had a lovely lunch and than took a two hour train back to Zwolle from Groningen which is really up north. On Saturday we talked to a guy for who is a born again christian for like over 3 hours which totally did not go anywhere. He is convinced that the bible is all he needs. Next time something like that happens we will just cut it short. We had a lot of dinner appointments with members this week and man it is so good and its a total dutch thing to always eat a tutje (dessert). Well... oh the other day when we were on our way home from Branch council meeting I saw a lady get hit by a car but she was fine and did not want any help. It tuns out she hit the car. The Members are so awesome and I told them that but that we all need to work harder as missionaries since as full time missionaries it is our duty to help the members do missionary work. Man time goes by so fast and I am once again at an end. I do love it here and I am working hard.

Bye Elder Ellis

Happy New Year!

2011-01-03T10:27:00.000-08:00

The mission is great here in Zwolle and I am learning a lot! The other week or this week I can't even remember when I was like two feet away from a taxi that sped through a red light going way over the speed limit. I was on my bike and my light was red so when it turned green I decided to pass my companion who was on my right side so I sped up to pass him but someting told me (THE SPIRIT) to slow down. So I did and a taxi from my right side sped through the intersection and just about hit me. My companion was a few feet behind me, I shook and was in shock ( not literal shock) But I was like, had I not listened to the spirit the speed that that car had, I would have been killed. Crazy. Well besides almost dieing I had a good week and got some new investigators. For one guy who was a HQ referral we took a bus out into nowhere for like 30 minutes and than walked down a lonley road in the dark next to the ocean but a dyke sepperated us from it for a whole hour. It was a long walk and we did not even know if he was home since the referral came from Finnland. His mom opened the door and they let us in. Wow. We gave him a book of mormon and explained it and taught the first lesson in dutch. Even I taught in Dutch. His dad decided to join in the lesson. He is in his mid 20 and I know that they felt the spirit so we'll see what happens from here. And a few other people also decided to listen to us. We even taught a Muslim Lady which is usually not allowed but she claims to also be christian? The Members here in Zwolle are so awesome and we are booked for dinner appointments this week. Yeah. Our finding is ok but a lot of people don't believe in god and some say they are religious but not believers? So I got to get going cause my time is up and I was reading some e-mails. I miss everybody in all the continents that I know somebody in. Bye

Elder Ellis

Well Hello!

2010-12-27T07:01:00.000-08:00

Thanks for your e-mail. It was very nice to talk to all of you on christmas and I still think about it. My mom did get a hold of me she called and I talked to her it was very nice. I cant wait to get the box because I have not gotten any letters besides a letter from my mom the day I got to the mission which was awesome. I really miss getting at least one letter everyday from Cassie. Now I get nothing:( However yesterday my companion and I got a huge box from the branch with a ton of food and candy. Like bread soups noodles and some other stuff. Now we don't really need to go shopping today. Yeah. So we have an awesome branch. All the members are so nice and we went to a few familys for the Christmas time and played games. It was so much fun even though I didn't talk hardly ever. I am usually a big talker and I was in the MTC but here I am super quite just cause I never know what to say. Oh well it will come. We ran into a lady yesterday who had contact with the missionaries a while ago and we are gonna meet with her so hopefully she'll be an investigator. Also we are gonna meet with a guy from thailand. I am so excited because he speaks english and no dutch so I get to teach too. yeah. Today we cleaned some in the apartment. We are gonna go to the centrum of Zwolle and take some pictures and look at some stuff , it'll be fun. Its been pretty cold. but I can take it cause we bike everywhere so I usually sweat. We went to kampen and there was a super old like really tall church tower and its leaning a little off to the side. There were also a bunch of old sail ships. Most of the rivers that they have everywhere are frozen, people iceskate on them haha. Also we went down this tiny hill with a slay and some other thing like a big plate. Its pretty hardcore here and I can't wait to start teaching someone. The food the members have been feeding us has been extremly good so I've put on a couple of kilos. oops. I do work out every morning but I guess its just not enough. I will try harder though. Well there is a lot going on but yet nothing to tell.So I hope that I will have some cool stories to tell soon. I guess I'll talk to alýall next monday.\

Love you all. Bye.

Elder Ellis' First Day in Belgium

2010-12-20T20:14:00.000-08:00

You can see photos from Jon's first day in Belgium here on his Mission President's blog.

Hello everyone!

2010-12-20T19:04:00.000-08:00

Well first off, flying was interesting and it sure took forever to get to Belgium. First there was something wrong with a "Probe" on the airplane but then they said that they would fix it and after like over an hour they let us get off to get some food while they fix it, two hours after that they said that they can't fix it and that we would be using a new airplane. So we had to go to a gate on the complete other side of the big Atlanta airport. I did have a few chances to talk to people which I did. One older German Couple and we talked about missions. They were very interested and they told me that our group of missionaries looked very happy and nice and that there was something about us..... Duhh...We are the Missionaries. They were nice. Then me and Elder Davies talked to a guy who was very smart. We talked about how bad the world is today and everytime when we said something he would either kindly interrupt or comment on everything we said. We introduced the book of Mormon and like I said before we were even done he interrupted and said "Oh I've already read that and the two other books that come with it. Wow how cool. He said that he new that the book of mormon real scripture is and that it contains the gospel of Jesus Christ. But than he said "but why are you young people out here trying to get people to read this book, What do you know" Elder Davies and I in perfect unity than explained that we were called of god and that we have his spirit and that we let people feel of that spirit to testify of the truth of what we are saying. He was silent the entire time and just listened. We had all his attention till they said we could board the plane. He totally felt the spirit. Well anyways, we got to the Belgium airport and there some missionaries and sister brubaker picked us up. President and Sister Brubaker are soo awesome and cool. He is extremely funny and nice well both of them but he is nice. So just so you know, about two weeks into the MTC we all threw a ball at the belgium/netherlands map to see where everyone was going. I hit Zwolle. So about that time was the time I knew that I was going to Zwolle. I would tell other missionaries even though they could care less. We always joked about it. Elder Davies got the ball somewhere in Belgium. Well at the mission home we were about to find out where we were going and they told us the areas that are open. The place in Belgium that Elder Davies chose was not open so he just said well I'm going to what ever is open in Belgium. Of course I said that I'm going to Zwolle. As my companion was the first to open his call out of us Elders he got Gent which is in Belgium. So Elder Davies was like ahhhh so he said that he would get Zwolle and I was like no you're not cause thats where I am going. Well once it came around for me to open my call I looked at the paper and just burst out into laughter. I said "I'M GOING TO ZWOLLE" withe Elder Wells who aparently is the best trainer. This is his last transfer so it will also be his best. We spent the night at the mission home with about 20 other Elders and a few sisters. In the morning the next day we left for our areas. We all got on one train and than got off at different stations. Time to say goodbye to all my good MTC friends. It will be hard. After switching trains to go to Utrecht its just me and Elder Andrews. When we get off in Utrecht there were no missionaries around to pick us up so we waited around for a while. We got cold so we went upsairs to the main train station. Still no one in sight. We walk around for quit a while going all over. Well we could not find them. So we decided just to wait by the information stand till they find us. ..... and more time... wel all of a sudden Elder Andrews is like I see them. Yeahh finally. I would of had no clue what to do if I didn't find them. Elder wells had to take another train to get to Zwolle which was a long train ride. And so packed that I had to stand the entire time with some really cute girl pretty much all up on me. Anyways it was super awekward like so tight inthere like you would only imagin in like India or Afrika. Oh and all our luggage too. So Zwolle is AWESOME but I am new here obviously and so is my Companion. We are white washing. We found our place and after we go back out to go walk around and do some finding we lock ourselves out. The adventure just keeps on getting better. Even before that we were riding our bikes back from the grocery store and Elder Wells decides to make a quick turn so I was about to hit him so I hit the brakes and I slipped and fell. It was a soft landing but it was super funny. Bytheway its been snowing like they said never before. Well its fun here. The ward is great. We are moving into a new church building from an office to an actuall building. We have no investigators so we have to do alot of finding. I can not understand anything. I'll talk later.

Safe Arrival to Belgium

2010-12-17T16:42:00.000-08:00

We're grateful for the safe arrival of Elder Ellis to Belgium earlier today. He had a very long layover in Atlanta because of problems with the plane, but we were able to talk to him a few times yesterday!

His first area of service will be in Zwolle, Nederland and his trainer's name is Elder Wells. He's very excited to get started! Thanks for all the support you've shown him, he appreciates it so much. If you'd like to write him, you can send your letters to the mission home - the address is in the sidebar.

President and Sister Brubaker with Elder Ellis

Well Hello all Y'all

2010-12-15T17:49:00.000-08:00

I have had a really good week especially since I've been preparing myself to leave. Its crazy to think about it, reality definatly has not hit me yet. I can't wait to eat some real good food at the airports but I mean the food here is ok. Today I went to the temple at 7 in the morrow. It was soo cool cause it was like the perfect way to start off the day. Broeder Jacobs showed us some stuff from his mission and told us a ton of stories, some which are scary that I will not mention cause it would probably worry you all. Anyways Thanks again for all your letters and boxes and what not. I got some really good treats from grandma Alaine. Man I can't wait. I am still tying to figure out some stuff with my luggage cause it was alittle overweight cause I have so many books. I had to buy like every Dutch book they had and an Arabic BoM. I will miss the MTC and all the Teachers and the people, the awesome gym time where everyone is together. man I played 4 square all the time and its the nerdiest game in the world, I mean not as nerdy as tether ball. Yesterday when I got into the 4 th square I retired so I would leave with the memory of being at my prime. All the Elders and Sisters in my DISTRICT ARE AMAZING I have learned lots from them even though they learned more from me haha. I am so excited to see real people who are not mormon at like the airports and to talk to them and start the mission work. Yes I will call but the Lords work is more important than a too long phone call cause I only have two years to have the authority given to me to be a representitive of Jesus Christ. I talked to some Elders all the time who are from Germany so I am getting back into German. I am also realizing how much I miss Austria and how much I love the German cultur. I am still a full on American Patriot but I'm just saying. Tonight we get to see all the pics from our teachers missions and here the cool stories. Iam super excited. I am a deciple of Christ. I appreciate all the encouragement from all you but I have noticed that I have Jesus Christ and Heavenly father on my side since I am doing their work in a way I sometimes think Ahhh you are all to kind but really you out there fighting every day life are the ones that need the encouragement because I don't have the worldly things distracting me. I have had a lot of time to think and I've realized that me being on a mission is the best thing in the world and so selfless because I am helping people accept Jesus Christ and seek Eternal Life. That is what this life is all about. All money is worthless because We will be judged acording to our deeds and not how much money we have or worked for. The question that we all should be asking ourselves is " What am I doing to help build the kingdom of God, How am I Strengthening the family and the true church of Jesus Christ." I love this work and there is no end to it. We live to receive our bodies and Be tested. We have all already sccepted Jesus Christ as our Savior or else we would not be here on this Earth, as missiononaries its our job to help people remember their decicion they made by letting them feel of the spirit of truth. Anytime someone tries to justify a rule or a commandment its probably wrong. As missionaries we learn to be excactlly Obedient. Obedience is an important principle. Well thats enough of my preaching its just I can feel the spirit testify of the truth all the time its awesome. Oh now some other stuff. I have a cough and I hope to get rid of it before I go but I doubt that that'll happen. I love you all who ever reads this. Man I am so excited to meet people and I already love them and want them to receive the gosple. Thanks again for all the letters and all anyone has done for me.

Hey again!!

2010-12-08T17:10:00.001-08:00

Thank you for all the wonderful letters that I have received. I am sorry if I hav not gotten back to everyone yet its just that I don't have that much time. As some of you may already know I received my travel plans to leave on December 16th!!!! I am so stoked right now. Ok so funny story: I was sitting in my class and I was tired of sitting in my chair so I decided to sit in someones elses chair. That chair was right next to the computer where Elder Benson was sitting. About 5 minutes after I sat there studying the scriptures I feel this liquid splashing over me staring from my sleeve working its way up till it sprayed me on the side of my face. I took my hand and wipped down my face to find blue color all over my hand. It turned out that Elder Benson had just opened his blue highlighter marker and it exploded or something all over me. He got a little on him but mostley me. It was really funny and luckely I was able to get it out of my white shirt. Oh man I am leaving in like 8 days its crazy. My dutch is ok but I am gonna be screwed for the first few days. haha. So our district ran into an old man from the netherlands while on a temple walk. We talked to him for a while. Also We talked to the two Ducth Senior couples that were at the MTC and they gave us a bunch o dutch treats. It was so good. We also did an activity with them by teaching eachother so it was good cause we always only teach young elders and sisters who we feel comfortable around. At the TRC we do get to teach returned missionaries and sometimes older people who went there long ago. My companion and I taught a lady who just came back from the netherlands the second lesson in dutch and it went really good. Now obviouslly she already knows the truth but as the spirit directed me I asked her to be baptized and she said yes as soon as she knows that its true.We had a speaker here not to long ago who said that if you want to know that this church is true and you want to have a testimony and want to feel the spirit than you have to work hard. As a missionary its easier cause you don't have all the worldly distractions but still we need to read every day in the scriptures, we need to pray with a sincere heart, we need to have faith that we will receive an answer. Jesus Christ is knocking on our doors. We have to open them and let him in and let the atonement of Jesus Christ the son of God work for us. I can't wait to teach this to people who are searching for this truth in their lives. I am having so much fun here that I can't even imagine leaving this place. Today I ran around with an orange and a green dot on my name tag so orange means your new and green means your international so most likely a non english speaker. So many people fell for it and were all like Welcome Elder. Or some would talk to me and I would act like I could'nt speak english and they believed me it was fun. Anyways. Something sad happened this week. One of the Elders in my District had to go home on short notice for medical reasons it was really sad. Our teacher cam back that night after that Elder left and we prayed together as a district on our knees. It was so powerful. Prayer is so powerfull if you have faith in Jesus Christ. Pray,Pray,Pray. All day when ever you can. Give thanks to he who has givin you all things. Also yesterday I had the oportunity to give a blessing and it was alos very powerful. I was litterally guided by the spirit. At first I thought I would not be able to do it but I opened my mouth with faith that it would be filled by the spirit and it was. It was a very cool blessing.

Elder Ellis

Hello everybody!

2010-12-01T15:11:00.001-08:00

Ok so first things first, if I have not replyed to some I am very sorry its just my time is limited and I can only write so many letters and I've written a few but I am still working on replying to everybody. So thank you all for your wonderful letters. I really like getting letters from all of you. So I am also sorry if you asked me any questions and I never answered its just hard to remember everything and I always forget the letters when I write my e-mail or letters. I can't wait to go to europe cause than I am not in such a rush to write my e-mails. We had a huge service project on thanksgiving day where we made school bags for children we made like 33000 and I was one of the trainers and leaders who showed the Missionaries what to do it was really fun. So also for the morning devotional on thanksgiving Elder Jeffrey R. Holland came and talked to us.... It was sooooooo goood like I can't even tell you and all his grandchildren sang to us, it was so cute cause it reminded me of like the primary things at our ward at home. This whole last week has been awesome and I am learning more and more everyday. I feel like home, its gonna be reqally sad when we all leave and we (our district) are split. I mean we are in the same mission but who knows how often we will see eachother. We have a new teacher who is helping out alot his name is Broeder Jacobs and he really likes me and he is way cool (he just got back like 1 year ago). I've been waking up at 5;30 a few times now to work out with an elder who is in the army and there was an elder from the marines. Today the new Dutchies arrived and two of them are brazilian but their english is pretty good. There are 4 new elders and 1 new sister. The brazilians had a hard times getting visas they should have been here on sep 7th. Last night we heard from Sister Beck the general relief society pres it was really good. I mean all the talks are good. Oh also funny story a week or so ago I don't remember,while I was sitting I saw Ruth Ellis walk in with her family and I was like what? She went to Impact. Her husband spoke at one of the firesides. She is the daughter of one of the MTC president counselor or something. weird. So today Mike is here and I have not seen him yet but I am so excited like the most excited since I have been here. I even walked outside for a while trying to see him get dropped off but I had to go cause we had to go do something. I have grown so much spiritually or maybe its just the MTC Spiritual Prisoneous feeling that we feel here. I am making a lot of friends and they are so cool. So I am learning a lot of new things here. pretty cool. So today I get to go to the temple again finally whooooooho. Oh and I learned a Dutch birthday song cause they don't use Happy Birthday to you .... like we do its a lot longer and way cool. I am still learning it. There is a bird inside the cafetiria and I almost caught it one time but it slipped my suit coat . Yeah it just had babies in the ceiling where the lights are. We have come to really like the Bird and it actually has a lot of names since no one can agree on a single name. Oh for my mission plaque I will send a letter with the photo and the scriptures tommorrow thannk you fro being patiant. Oh so I lost my notebook with all my notes from the wonderful talks and I just found it a week later. I am loving it and I am really coming to realize the fruits of this gospel and I cannot wait to go do the real work. You have no Idea. Oh yeah it snowed so its cold and snowy outside. Oh and that huge storm everyone was talking about did not hit us at all like there was no sign of it besides maybe the snow. I love you all. And I now have to go because my time is up. I love it here. My district is awesome and my teachers are the best and our branch presidency our so the best and you are all the best and thanks for all the letters. I am a deciple of Jesus Christ. I am!!!!!! I am Called from God to do his work!!! I know that now!!!!!!!! I can not express to you the love I have for the work that I have not even started yet. Byeeee

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-24T18:02:00.001-08:00

Hey The temple was closed today. :( And the Internet was up and down all day so I couldn't write till now and I only have a few minutes. They told us last night that there would be a really bad storm and that it would snow like crazy but it barily even snowed and there was no storm. So here is the all awaited question......... I got 13 paper letters. So I broke the record of nine now the thing is if the letters are all sent on the same day they cram them together on those papers so technically I got 28 letters. I also won best tie of the day with the orange peisley. Thank you so much for all the letters and for the Big Box with all the wonderful things in it. Tomorrow is a huge service project and I am one of the trainers that tells all the other missionaries what to do. I must go. I love you all.

Also We heard from a guy from sweden yesterday who is in the second quorom of the seventys it was really good. I love it here so much!!! I can't wait to go to my mission and I already taught the first lesson in dutch Bye my time is out!

Hello Everybody

2010-11-17T11:22:00.001-08:00

Well first to start off I will take my missionary pic today and send it. I don't have my scripture yet but I will have it by next week. I just want to say thanks for all the letters and box that I have received and of course cassies boxes. Yesterday I was in the cafeteria and I thought I saw Jonny Pickett so I walked up to him and it was Elder Pickett. Jonnys brother it was really awekward cause I asked him if he had a younger brother and if he lived in california and he was like yeaaahh why? Than I explained the situation. yeah. I am doing pretty good with the language except on monday I did horrible I don't know what happend when I started our language task but at least toward the end I redeemed myself. Elder Davies got his tonge stuck to a popsicle for like 2 minutes and I poured applejuice on his tonge but it was still stuck, it must have been the funniest thing ever. Last night we had Elder Pearson a member of the quorum of the seventys speak and it was pretty dang exciting. His talk was (I don't want to say it) but the best one so far. Well in its own way. He just gave us so much valiuable information. I will improve to become a deciple of Christ. He was awesome. I am getting my hair cut today and its gonna be awesome. We missionaries laugh about the dumbest things. I am truely a missionary now. Oh yeah I see Elder Lawter all the time now its pretty cool to see him. This morning my shower was freezing cold. I want to share cool experiances but I have'nt taught any real lessons yet and any real people so for while I am in the MTC you'll just get e-mails talking about things like the stuff I am writing. I heard Ali finally got a calling. Woohoo thats awesome. And brandon I am pleased to hear that you are doing better. I really love and care about you and I want you to have an awesome mission experiance like I will have, so prepare yourself now because there are so many things I wish I had known befroe coming here. Also they have endless Orange Guava Juice and Apple Juice and any other juice imaginable it is soo awesome. So you'll love the MTC if you come to the Provo one. My cousin Miriam left already to go to Frankfurt so I said bye to her. Ohhhhh Mike I can't wait to see you and to make fun of you for being new. jk. You'll love the MTC. Just work hard and don't let satan tempt you. You have been called of God our Loving Heavenly Father to serve the people in Philly, the Lord has prepared them to hear the gosple from you specifically. They need you and so does your family and future family. They all count on you. Plus I know that you can do it with the help of the Lord. Oh man I have only been here for 4 weeks and I sometimes feel really trunky. We watched the Testiments the other night and you know its like a romance so all the missionarys like wistle and scream through all the romantic parts. and it doesnot matter how cheesy they are. My English spelling is getting worse. I was'nt trying to sound like I don't have enough I just wanted to make it clear that I did not know what I was talking about. I now love getting letters, packeges. oH WELL my time is almost up thanks for everything I love you all I am doing great. Thank you Samantha for the card and the letter. can you send me Samanthas E-mail and send this to her. Sorry time is up I have like a minute to send it before it kicks me off. BYE Dear Elder me as much as you can I have to brake the sisters record for receiving 9 dear elders in one day. Thanks bye

Hey Everybody

2010-11-10T13:56:00.000-08:00

So this week was awesome again like always but it is getting kinda long here like I just wanna get to the Netherelands. We heard from Elder David A. Bednar last night and it was insanely amazing I learn so much from all the apostales here at the MTC that is the third Apostale in a row for me. We also heard from some lady who is like the executive boss of deseret book that was really good too. I wish I could write faster cause they have so much stuff to say and its impossible to write it all down. The food is getting old and boring cause its really starting to repeat itself. I love it here still. Some of the Elders are so cool and funny that we have a blsat all the time. I talk to Elders from Germany all the time and its cool but my teacher says not to talk german too much or else I'll have a hard time learning dutch but since german is my first language I do it anyway its like telling us not to talk english to anyone cause we won't be able to learn dutch. Whatever. Thanks Brandon, Melanie, and Christian fro writing me. Brandon I heard from Christian that he thinks your cooler and in the letter you wrote me it looks like your doing really good in being a better person. Thats awesome. When I have more time I will write you an actual letter. Christian I am so proud of you to get up infront of a bunch of people to give a talk on priesthood. I am so excited for you to receive the aaronic priesthood. I love getting letters. Oh and there is not that much more to tell cause now life here is normal. The temple is fun to go to. Oh I talked to Elder Crone and said goodbye cause he already left yesterday.

Anyways there is not that much more to say except that I miss everyone.

I am excited for Dylan to come when is he coming?

and Mike.

Hey Mike thanks for writing me well sorta I want you to hang in there and start preparing yourself for your mission cause I've already been here fro 3 weeks and I do not feel ready and thats all the time youy get in the MTC So I just want you to know that.

You can say hey to anybody

Maybe you could also send this to my mom. Well like what ever is not like specifically to someoine cause I write her but it takes for ever to get there.

Right now I am tired. I'm keeping my self in shape so don't worry. It snows sometimes alittle like right now. The temple is so beautiful when we go there for the sunday temple walks. So the other day at the tTRC I had to pick someone up to take them to a bus aand than talk to them on the way to church (scenario) and I was speaking Dutch pretty good like I kept on taliking and explaining things like what we do at church and we have bnot even learned that yet. hahah oh man time is running out. Its kinda cold outside. I went trhough like 5 bags of cough drops and I still have a cough. Thanks for the Box and everything I got its like the best thing whenever you get somethimng. Well we need to go to the temple now and sorry if things are missspelled its jusrt that I have no to read over it. I hope it all makes sense.

Bye Love you all!

Elder Ellis

Hey It's Me Again

2010-11-03T14:05:00.000-07:00

Ok so I can't remember what I said last time cause it feels like the days are all the same and as if I have lived here for ever. I am still loving it and it only gets better. I have been sick the last couple of days and it sucks cause I missed a few hours of class one time. Its hard to focus when you are sick and super tired but its all good. Since I'm sick I havent had such a large appetite but I am staring to feel better so Cafeteria here I come. haha oh and I know what everyone else whos been here means with watch out for the juice cause thats all I drink besides the water fountain water through out the day. It feels really good to get mail but Its harder to write back than I thought. P-dAY is not very long. There is an elder in my district Elder Jones he is very lean and very smart. Its so funny to talk to him cause he has a lot of knowledge to share. All the other elders and sisters are really cool too we all get a long for the most part ;) haha I received a bunch of letters from seminary. We had Elder M Russell Ballard come give a devotional it was really cool and once again I felt the spirit very strongly. I love those kind of experiances. I can conntect in Dutch now and hold a small conversation and ask a lot of questions. I still love it here but sometimes when I wake up in the morning the next thing I want to do is go back to bed. Right now Elder Jones is massaging my shoulders and man it feels good. We have two really cool sisters in our district its really a blessing to have them. I am sorry if my emails start getting shorter thats just cause I am starting to get used to it.Its funny to see new missionaries arrive. Oh I run into Elder Crone some times but we never have time to talk. I run into my cousin Miriam I mean sister schenk all the time and we talk a little. There are some cool people here. My Branch President is really cool and I have learned a lot from him. He is also a chiropractor. So I might ask him to give me an ajustment. I am always quoting movies, youtube, and other things oh yeah songs too but so is everyone else. We sing songs and we imperonate others its funny. Elder Davies and I switched nametags and I took his glasses and he acted like me and I acted like him and then Our branch presidency came in and they walked up to me and started calling me Elder Davies and I was like oops so we started laughing and it was really funny cause the presidency is really cool and they laughed too. So I gotta go to the temple which reminds me its so cool to see a bunch of young men and women go to the temple. Well Hi to everyone and happy birthday to Uncle Allen all I know is its hie birthday sometime this month. I love you all. Mike I will write you as soon as I get the chance. Ok gottogo.

Ps thanks for the box and all the letters and whatever else.

Bye

Elder Ellis

Hey!

2010-10-27T14:04:00.000-07:00

I am doing so good! Eveyone here is awesome. My companions name is Elder Brown and he is pretty cool. The food is good and I eat a lot and always feel full but i dont drink soda. Oh and just so you know right away I don't have much time cause I am going to the temple in a few minutes. If you send me a box just put what ever you want in it anything is great. Like gatorade or candy or food or anything is awesome toys are cool I mean here we act like kids again sorta. I ran into some elders who are going to Vegas and into some who are from germamy one of them knows someone I know so its kinda funny. It is really spiritual most of the time except for the time when I laugh non stop. hahaha My district is so funny Elder Davies and I always laugh but we are also very spiritual. We had Elder Richard G. Scott of the quorum of the 12 talk to us yesterday and it was so spiritual that I can't describe it. He really is an Apostle of God I KNOW THAT! He said" As an apostle of god I testify that Jesus Christ lives because I know him! The spirit testified to me the truth I know that everything he said is true I have never felt the spirit so strong in my life its crazy. I love being here. The time in my email is ticking and I am so stressed right now cause there is so much I want to say but I have to go as fast as I can. Today is my first Pday and its fun so far so if you could only write me thru letters than I have more time to write on her. I'm gonna have to think about my favorite scripture but I will let you know as soon as possible. Say Hi to everyone. Have people write me as much as possible. Getting mail means your cool here at the MTC. Oh Dutch is good I can understand evreything the teachers say its just hard to try to pronounce the stuff right. I am leaving December 20th so juct cause you wanted to know that. My teachers are so cool and its really fun. At first I was kinda quiet but now I feel more comortable. Oh if I spell stuff wrong thats cause I am going as fast as I can. We watched a movie sunday and it was so cool and everyone would cheer at the cheesey parts its pretty funny. I get an hour every day to work out and they have a gym and its cool some play sports and I run 1 mile and I workout with some weights but I am still gaining weight. We only sing in dutch and pray in dutch and its cool. We had a huge tie trade going on on our residence floor and there were like 30 missionarys walking around trading ties but I didnot trade any. We also had a black light rap party I rapped and a few others did too some beatboxed and some flickerd flashlighs and one elder danced it was so cool. Also We had Magic Tuesday which is something only Dutchis go thru well only those going into Belgium so also The french missionarys have to go thru it. Well I got to go if I forgot someting I am sorry there is just so much going on. Thanks for everything and can you send this to my sister. Once I get things figured out it will be easier.

BYE BYE

Jonathan Opening His Mission Call

2010-10-01T12:19:00.000-07:00

The day Jonathan received his mission call, but still hadn't opened it yet, my husband came home and heard that Jonathan had received his call and the first thing he said was... "He's going to go to Belgium and speak Dutch." That's why Jonathan looks so shocked when he first reads where he's going. He also said over and over again that the only language he didn't want to speak was Dutch because he thought it would mess up his German. He's originally from Austria and speaks German as well. That's the other language you hear him speaking in the video to his mom and cousin.