Transfers!

Hey everyone!

This week was probably one of the busiest weeks of my mission. We found a lot of really cool people after a big leap of faith when we decided to stop teaching a lot of our eternigators (investigators that love being taught but never do anything). We found a Brazilian family who had had the lessons like 30 years ago until the missionaries in that area disappeared with a whitewash or something. We taught them and left them a Book of Mormon and the 17 year old son read half of it before we came back a few days later. They invited us over for dinner and we loved talking to them! We focused on the message that the gospel of Jesus Christ blesses families. When we taught Maria, the mom, that she could be with her family forever she just started bawling. It was so special! We also met three young siblings who are friends of one of my favorite members here. They are 18, 16, and 13 years old. We taught them the about the restoration of the gospel and they accepted our invitations to  attend church with the other youth. 

Here's a picture of Andre (Who is going to leave on his mission soon), me, Diogo, Beatriz, Roseana, Sister Aiono, and Sonia. They are a really cool group of jovens!

We also got news of transfers! I'm going to stay here in Portimão and serve with Sister Foster!! Whoo-hoo!! I know Sister Foster really well! She lived with me in Barreiro for 12 weeks! It's going to be such a great transfer! We're really excited to start working.

Our classic elevator picture in the morning

Tania! We love her so much!


Part of the culture in Portugal is that you sit and wait while people make food for you. It's always super awkward. But hey... we do anything for food... XD

One of our friends has a cat with a mustache. He's so cuddly!

We had a great week! Love you guys!

Sister Ellsworth
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Goodbye Sister Aiono, we will miss you !!!. <----click here

Semana 5: Divisions, General Authorities, and Adventures

Hey everyone!!

We has a fun division with the Sisters from Olhão, Sister Gaidanov from Romania and Sister Baker, from Utah. I stayed with Sister Baker who has been on her mission for 5 weeks!  It was fun to remember how fun it was to be a greenie in a strange country. I also know Sister Gaidanov from the MTC! We were in the MTC together and we came to Portugal at the same time. It was awesome to see how much she has grown in the past 7 months.

We also had a conference with Ulysses S Soares, who is the President of the Seventy for our areas. He came to talk to us and tour the area. He talked about better organization and diligence in the work! We spent most of the day with him and the other missionaries in our zone.  We had pizza with him too!

On Saturday night we accidentally locked our keys inside of our house.... And normally a member has spare keys but we accidentally broke the original keys when they fell out the window of our 9 story apartment. (That is a long story..) So we were using our spares when they accidentally got locked inside our house. So Sister Aiono has locked herself out a couple of times so she's learned how to open doors with our pass along cards. But after an hour of trying to open it, we decided to make some calls to our friends. We called a member who is a firefighter to ask for help. He brought this XRay sheet, folded it in half, and opened the door in 30 seconds. So. If you ever get locked out of your house... Just find an XRay!! Haha.

Also Jose was confirmed on Sunday! It's always so great to see when people accept such a great and special thing. 

Thanks for all you support!

Sister Ellsworth

Sister Gaidanov, me, Sister Baker, and Sister Aiono
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Week 4 in Portimão

Hey ya'll! This week has been an adventure for sure. We had some really good days and some really rough days. Our president came to visit our area and interview the missionaries in our district. I was really nervous but we had a really great talk and he had nothing but compliments and advice for us.  He warned us about a lot adversary this week because the Algarve will turn into a stake soon, they're building a temple in Lisbon, and Ulisses S Soares is going to be visiting the mission. I was kinda of like yeah yeah... but it the law of opposition is real.

We had some real progress with some of our investigators this week. One, Flavio, finally accepted a baptism date after months and months of meeting with the sisters. We also finally got one of our investigators to agree to stop smoking and give us his tobacco.... but then we found out that he had a big old stash that we didn't know about. The little turd bucket.... Haha.

We went to Lisbon this week to take care of my residency!! Now I'm an official resident of Portugal! Does that mean that I still have to tell people I'm American? Haha!

We have also been challenged by mission president to read the whole Book of Mormon in less than three weeks. I decided to try to read it in Portuguese! It has been a lot easier to read in Portuguese than I thought! I've only had to look up a few words in English but I've been able to keep up, understand, and mark it thoroughly as well.  I think it's about time to understand most everything. It's only been 7 months! I have absolutely loved to read the Book of Mormon in Portuguese. Every day i feel like I have a special extra strength, a brighter smile, and a little more endurance for the hard things.

This week I've been studying 3 Nephi which has a lot of really great scriptures and doctrine.

 24 Therefore, whoso heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, who built his house upon a rock—

 25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock.

 26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand—

 27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell, and great was the fall of it.

I've been thinking a lot about a foundations and how the help us when things get hard. This little scripture talks about building a foundation in the words of Christ.

We went to Lisbon and Sister Aiono fell asleep. We worked really hard this week! (Don't worry I have her permission to share this photo)

Put your shoulder to the wheel!! Haha!

Love you guys!

Com Amor,

Sister Ellsworth

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Photos: 5th transfer Portimão

5th transfer Portimão

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B1E_UbADdu_BeFRUSXdUQXQ4Z28

Baptism, Random Dog, and I freaking love my comp!

Hey everyone! 

This week I felt like we were running all week long! We have two investigators that are trying to stop smoking and one who was baptized on Sunday! I think we taught more taught more than 30 lessons this week and our average is like 12. 

Our good friend Jose was baptized! This guy has one heck of a story. He's fought in world wars, hitchhiked across the world, and has done just about everything you can imagine. One of my favorite things he said was "I've lived a long life but I've never had peace. When I'm with you guys (the missionaries) i feel the peace that I've never felt." He was so excited to be baptized that when Brother Gabriel tried to immerse him, Jose threw himself down so hard it splashed all the members who were watching and Brother Gabriel lost his grip on Jose. Jose came up coughing a bit but he said "Well I guess I had to be baptized on the inside too!" He's a funny guy!

We also have a dog. But it's not ours technically... There's this little black dog that follows us around to all of our lessons ad waits outside for us to come out. We found him on the road and I thought he was lost so we tried to find his owner with the address on his collar but turns out the owner just lets him run around outside all day and he comes back at night. We named him Animo, which means excited because the little bugger is so darn happy all the time! He's so cute. 

We got to help one of our less active members who is anciently old go to the bank this week too. She's like 99 so it took 3 hours  to walk to the end of the street to the bank and back. I'm not exaggerating.... 3 hours. But that is OK because she bought us pizza afterwards! Haha!

It's been really warm here! It's been about 60 degrees and sunny. I've heard about all the snow in Utah and I don't even miss it XD

Love all of you!

Boa semana!

Com Amor,

Sister Ellsworth

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