Well Hello all Y'all

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!!

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!

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

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

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

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

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