Whitewash with a Native, Getting Lost, WHOOHOO

Wow! This week was AWESOME! Probably one of the craziest weeks I've had on my mission. First off, I'm whitewashing an area with Sister Nogueira who is from San Paulo, Brasil in Póvoa. (poh-voh-ah) It's a big city on the outskirts of Lisbon. It has a ton of hills and our area covers a lot of the suburbs of Lisbon. Our members are AWESOME! It's just a party all the time.

Our first day trying to get to our new area was definitely an adventure. We were in 7 Rios (a really big train station / metro) and I found the map that would drop us in Póvoa. We grabbed all of our bags and dragged them to the other side of the train station until our train arrived. We threw our bags on  and as I was watching the stops and reading the map that's inside the train I noticed that Póvoa wasn't one of the stops. A little anxious, we got off at the next stop, dragged our bags to the opposite line, and got on the next train. Looking at the map of stops, it had Póvoa! But then I realized the train was going in the wrong direction.....

At the next stop we got off AGAIN and asked a worker which train went to Póvoa and he pointed to Line 3. We had already tried line 1 and line 2. So we got on line 3 and headed on out way. Looking at the stops again, it said that were were headed to the Algarve which was not even close to Póvoa! Got of, switched trains, and asked yet another employee. He said that it was number 1, which was the first train that we tried. I wanted to smack my head on the wall.

Finally we found the right train and arrived in our area. We found a taxi and gave him the address to our house and he said "Oh no, I know the missionaries! I know where you live!" We were like sweet, let's go! We loaded up our suitcases and he dropped us off in front of this apartment and drove off. We tried to open the door but none of our keys worked, Turns out the taxi driver took us to the Elders' house and not our house.

We called him again and made him take us to OUR house and finally found our new home sweet home. Then we spent the next 5 hours cleaning the dirtiest house I have ever seen in my life.

Lot's of other things happened too but I'm short on time. I took pictures this week but I left my SD card reader at home... Sorry. 

Love all of you guys!

The Happiest Sister Ever,

Sister Ellsworth

Transfers, War on the Elders

Hey! This week was fun! We had a lot of little miracles. Unfortunately I hurt my leg somehow and had some difficulties walking for a larger part of the week. We hosted President and Sister Tavares here at the end of the week. They told us about transfers Saturday morning and said that I was going to Evora (or in other words, land of the college kids) and that Sister Carr would stay here. Then on Sunday President called us again and was basically like "Just kidding, I moved everything at the last minute. Good luck." So we're like 90% sure that I'm going to Povoa to serve with Sister Nogueira, who is an awesome native from Brasil, and Sister Carr is staying here to train. She's so excited and I am too!

Also Sunday night Sister Carr and I were walking home and I heard this whoosh behind me and a splash. The Elders jumped out from behind a fence and hollered at us with water balloons in each hand! They chased us all the way to our house where we got cornered at our stupid front door that is literally impossible to open sometimes. The Elders had squirt guns and a sack full of water balloons and the only thing I could was try to dodge them and protect Sister Carr as she tried to open the ancient door (which usually only opens easily on the full moon or if you do a rain dance). Sister Carr managed to open the door and we ran inside and the Elders ran home laughing their heads off.

It's war. Have you already heard of the wars and rumors of wars? It has begun. We're in the chapel right now waiting for the elders to come by to pick up lunch... What better way to get Elders to show up than to offer them free food? Well we have a huge bucket of water balloons and two water guns. Story to be continued but the spirit of prophesy in me is telling me that there will be casualties on the opposing side.

:)

Sorry for the short email but love you still!

Tchau!

Sister Ellsworth

7th Transfer Portimao Photos and Videos

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B1E_UbADdu_BNzVjSHRFcDdEN0k

6th Transfer Portimao Photos and Videos

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B1E_UbADdu_BVnh6eTRXUk1KS0k

Happy Mothers Day! BBq's and Tender Mercies

Hey Everyone!

This week was good. Lots of work but we some some the greatest miracles I've seen so far on my mission. It was great to talk to my family on Sunday! They are cool people. It rained a lot this week but the Lord loves his missionaries so it only rained while we were inside! As soon as it was time to go outside it stopped raining!! I think God has a sense of humor or something.

There was a BBQ here for the  anniversary of the restoration of the Priesthood. We were out on the streets hauling loads of potential investigators into the church for free food and salvation! 

On Sunday at church I translated for two American families, a couple from Germany, and a woman from Switzerland for all three hours of church. My brain was completely fried at the end of the day! They were returned missionaries visiting their old areas again. One of them had served here 25 years ago and the other was a sister that trained my trainer! So she's my grandma! The man who served here 25 years ago was standing behind me as I was trying to talk a less active member into staying for the third hour of church but the less active wasn't having any of it. Then the man stepped all of a sudden like he knew the less active. Turns out the returned missionary had baptized that less active 25 years ago!! But they didn't recognize each other until I said the name of the less active. Talk about coincidences!

As promised, I have pictures!!

This is my best friend here in Portimao! Sonia is so awesome. She was baptized 4 years ago and loves to help us out and goof off with us on our Pdays.

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This is Teresa! If you guys saw, my dad posted a video of me talking about her on my blog. She has such a cool story. Love her to bits!


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​This week was international week in the Sisters' house. We made nachos! We also made Hortchata. Yum!


​This wonderful lady also changed me mission. Her name is Lania. She's one of those unknown superwomen who just needs to be baptized. Unfortunately she moved to Brasil this week. I'm happy for her! And I'm also going to track the missionaries down in her city and annoy them until they find her.

Love all of you! The Church is still true!

Sister Ellsworth

Video from Paige

Click here to see a short video of Paige we did during today's Mother's Day call.

Ladrões, Amazing People, Paradise Weather

Hey yall! This week was filled with lots of fun things. On our Pday we went to the local mall and tried to find a new skirt or dress for the Zone conference that happened on Tuesday. All the Sisters in my district are "old" sisters (we've been serving for more than 9 months) so we've all worn out all our clothes or worn them six bajillion times. When we got there we quickly realized that the winter knee-length skirts and dresses had long gone and had been replaced with the summer skirts lol. Let's just say that there will be no hope of finding new skirts unless you go to the old ladies section XD We got a few funny looks from these Germans as three Americans and a Brazilian tried on old lady skirts. 

On Tuesday we had an awesome Zone conference and I got to see a few of my friends before they head home in a few weeks. I took pictures and everything but then my Zone leader deleted every single picture I had on my camera. He doesn't speak a lick of English so the "delete selected picture" looked a lot like "delete all photos". I wasn't too happy but hey... The Atonement works in many different ways haha. So I don't have pictures for you guys... Sorry. I'll take some more this week. 

On Wednesday we were in the chapel waiting for an investigator to show up. We were there with Sonia and Carina who were working on a relief society project when this guy comes running through the door, blows past all of us, and books it to the end of the hall to the bathroom.  The four of us looked at each other bewildered but none of us had the guts to go find out why he need the bathroom so bad. Here in Portugal it's super rude not to say hello to someone. It's rude enough that people get in fist fights or break lifelong friendships over it so it was really strange that this strange man I've never seen before would just run into the chapel without saying anything. Well a few minutes later three other guys came running in and scared the bejeezes out of all of us. They were Gypsies so they're the type of people to live in shacks and steal things. Very nice people but not very trustworthy. So being the fearless missionary that I am I intercepted them before they could beeline it to the back of the church like the first guy and said "Hello, we're the missionaries. Would you like a tour of the chapel?" The man responded and said that they were looking for a thief who ran in the church. I was like.... uh oh... So I told them that a guy ran to the back of the church and they started to look for him. They didn't end up finding him and left in peace. I think the robber probably jumped the fence or something. 

We also met this woman named Teresa. We gave her a Book of Mormon and taught her about the plan of Salvation. She started to cry and told us that she had never found answers to her questions about life after death and the purpose of life. She began to read the Book of Mormon every day. She told us that she didn't understand everything that she was reading but that while she was reading  she felt this funny burning feeling in her chest. She din't understand it so she paused her reading assignment and took some medication for anxiety, thinking that her anxiety was coming back. But we explained to her that the Holy Ghost speaks to us through feelings like that. She felt so content that she asked if she could be baptized. My companion and I were like... Um. Sure. If you want to... Haha just kidding we were so stoked for her. Marked her  and everything. She's such a powerful woman.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY NEXT SUNDAY!!!! It was mothers day here yesterday... Don't ask me why it's different because I don't know. 

Well that's about it! Love all you to bits!

Sister Ellsworth

Adventures!

This week flew by... I feel like I blinked and it's Monday again. This week was fun! We had a training meeting with the Sister Training Leaders, Zone Leaders, and Assistants on Tuesday. We practiced teaching and we got a lot of really good feedback that saved a lot of would-be disaster lessons during the week. We taught a single mom this week named Carol. She's from Brasil but lived in England for a few years where she had her first daughter after her boyfriend left her. She moved back here to Portugal to finish school and be closer to family. I love her little daughter to pieces... She's so dang cute. As we were talking to Carol about how the gospel of Jesus Christ blesses families and how the Plan of Salvation is a guide for our lives, we were all touched by a special spirit. We also explained how the Book of Mormon is a history of her ancestors in ancient America and that special spirit was even stronger. Leaving that lesson I felt so happy to feel the spirit so strongly that I wanted to just stay with Carol for the rest of the day! 

On Thursday we had a grand adventure. The sisters from Lagos, which is the area closest to ours, called and said that one of the sisters was in the hospital with appendicitis. They had gone to the hospital without any spare clothes or toothbrushes so I did a division with Sister Ribeiro for a few hours to get back to Lagos and get extra things that they would need. Sister Herrera was so funny after she came out of the surgery! She's a funny girl in the first place but she came in singing the Bohemian  Rhapsody. She froze halfway through the song and said, in half Portuguese and half English, "Guys... I'm holy.." And then tried to do a contact with the doctor who was trying to explain to her a few rules. She had all of us laughing so hard.

It's been a good week. We're working hard and happy as ever!

Love you!

Sister Ellsworth