12/25/17

We had a wonderful chance to see Elder Ellsworth for the first time since he left for Ghana. All the Christmas and Mother's Day calls have been just that, calls. We actually got to see his awesome face thanks to a kind senior couple serving in his area that let him borrow their iPad. We were so excited, and apparently he thought that counted as his weekly update, because we did not get any emails this week. We will take it!

12/18/17

This week was good. I didn’t get to my area till Sunday because every day I did interviews for baptisms. We had 13 in the district and I interviewed 10! That’s a lot of work! haha

 I gave a talk in front of a general authority, so that was scary. I think I did well :)

 MERRY EARLY CHRISTMAS!

-Elder Ellsworth

1. Last Elder Evans haircut (That white thing is just a piece of wood) 

2. Pinewood Derby 

3. The cars. Ours is the third one. 

4. Poster for a big church night. With Ghanaian spelling.

12/11/17

IM NOW IN A STAKE WOOWHOO! The church is growing my friends because it’s true and now we have another stake for the tent of ZION.

 This week was okay. We made it pretty effective and after Saturday we have now come into Harmattan. Meaning DRY SEASON and the sky is covered with dust and your nose is full of unwanted gross things because of it!

 Honestly, Ghana is The Best!

 On Saturday the AP’s came and slept at our apartment for the becoming a stake conference and then they wanted something to do so they went on splits with us. But it rained so the companionship with a car had an effective day, while the other did not. Plus, I didn’t have the key to our bikes so we had to use the other companionship’s bikes and THOSE ARE TERRIBLE! I almost crashed and I’ve been getting pretty good-sometimes I can even ride with no hands, but knock on wood I don’t want to crash now! haha. So, our day was more of talking to each other :)

 Now we are in a 6-man apartment, but today the other companionship is moving out to their area (a 7 cedi tro ride away=really far) so we will be left a 4-man apartment and it will be lonely and they will be missed! All in all the work is progressing :)

 love you all!

 -Elder Ellsworth

12/4/17

This week was good. It actually went by fast so I don’t remember a bunch except today! Today we cleaned our poly tank (water tank). Pretty much that means Elder Stein jumped inside a tiny hole and scrubbed away till it was clean. But wait there is more! Because I JUMPED IN, too! WHAT? Yea I did! But my hips are too wide and my shoulders are too broad so I got scraped on the way down but, I made it! Then I got to help Elder Stein out, which was great. It was really, really, really humid in there and we could barely breath so I’m very grateful for the fresh air that is out of the tank. :) It was hard work and getting out was difficult! haha! There were two Elders and they grabbed my hands and then pulled but because I’m a big boy and I’m wide they couldn’t get me out! I slid back down and honestly, I was scared! I prayed a little prayer and then Elder Stein jumped back down and I used him like a ladder to get up and out and then we pulled him up with ease. But it was fun and a good story to tell :)

 Also, this week we had a parade! That was fun! We had it to let the whole town know that WE ARE BECOMING A STAKE! It was pretty fun but I got really, really, really sweaty :)

Also I went on an exchange with Elder Stein and we went to the BUSH! I GOT REKT by bug bites. It was a great day and I had a wonderful time with Elder Stein even with all the bites.

On the 16th of December the missionary district is planning on having 30 baptisms! That would be a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful Christmas present :) Of course, I will have to do the interviews, so bye-bye proselyting time. haha It’s worth it. 30 is the Goal but 19 might be the actual number. But Still! That’s awesome! I hope and pray it can come off.

Also, on Sunday we will BECOME A STAKE WOOWHOO ASAMANKESE! The church is true. In Twi=Me nim say Jesu Christo asori whaha an me nim say Ayea nou cray ;)

This week was a good week!

 Bug bites from a day in the Bush!

 Poly Tank (Water tank)

Thought I'd be stuck in here a while...

-Elder Ellsworth

11/27/17

We did not get a weekly update this week. Just a couple pictures of Brandon, his companion and a recent convert, Godwin, at the Ghana Temple.

 We will take what we can get, especially if it's pictures of our Missionary.

11/20/17

on Friday... Well I got a call at like 6:40 in the morning from the Sisters saying their companion is sick and she needs to go to the hospital. So, I was like, did she have a blessing? She said no, so we went over there and gave them a blessing and that was cool. Then they said they needed a malaria test kit and I was like “Well shoot they’re going to ask us to get them one”, but then I humbled myself and said “okay I can serve her, that’s good”. So, we went to the first drug store (side of the road--not an actual store--don’t be fooled) and it was closed. So then we were like “Flip we don’t want to bike all the way to the market and back--that would be a lot of work!”. But we did and we found the kit and payed for it and went back to the Sisters because we are nice. (So, when my wife wants a fish fillet sandwich at 3 in the morning when she’s pregnant, like my own father, I know I’ll go) We got that to them and that was pretty much it. There was more to Friday-- just not as exciting.

This week was good (other than that, and even that was good) I was a bit sick on-- I forgot what day, but my companion really wanted to go out so we did and I was basically a dead body while he taught the people but we still went out and had a pretty okay day, I think :)

In my reading I’m in Mormon. It’s so cool just to see how he changes and you can just tell it’s because he was reading Captain Moroni and other amazing leaders and how they truly influenced his life and leadership and even though his own army lost he was righteous because he read and likened the book of Mormon to himself :)

 -Elder Ellsworth

 and that’s from me washing my own clothes because my washing machine broke!

11/13/17

So, last week I kind of realized that I didn’t know what a stupor of thought really felt like, so like my naive self, I prayed to know (sadly it wasn’t answered immediately). So, instead I forgot I prayed for that and went on about my week. This week I had the opportunity to interview someone for baptism and during the interview, during a very important part, guess what happened? My prayer was answered! I was really stressed at that point but I knew that it was just an answer to my prayer and discussing more with the candidate I was able to make the decision that he was worthy to enter into the waters of baptism. Be careful what you pray for!

 This week was good. We were expecting to have 1 baptism this week but ended up having 2! Next week will be a wedding so we won’t get time to baptize and the week after is the temple trip so we wanted them to come with us.

This week I killed a snake! Yeah, when I say I, I mean I! I threw the killing rock that crushed its face in. It was sweet! Kind of, but still!

 This week was full of studying and the zone activity. It sounds like we will be doing a pine wood derby so if anyone has an idea of how to do it, I would love some insight (remember I’m in Ghana) 

My washing machine broke today. R.I.P. to my hands.

 Love you all. Be happy and healthy....get Glad

The snake I killed

Laser pointer through mosquito netting

Baptism

Baptism

More from the baptism

Ever see a pink chicken?  

 -Elder Ellsworth

11/6/17

This week was really good! We testified and we taught a lot of new people! Not too many super funny stories but we have the card game bang in the apartment so some nights we play that after the day is over so we have some pretty funny things that happen during that.

 So, this week we were able to teach a very prepared man named Godwin. We meet him 3 times a week and he stays like 10 long steps away from the chapel so it’s pretty sweet. He and his wife will be baptized very soon. Just to show, we gave him the assignment on Tuesday to read from 3rd Nephi ch9-ch30 and he finished it by Saturday and he truly believed that the same Jesus that was in the Bible appeared to the Nephites. He started quoting stuff. I actually thought he was a member messing with us but HE’S NOT! It’s sweet. He has wonderful questions and just makes missionary work exciting for us. We even had a kneeling prayer with him on Saturday (first one on mission because we only teach outside on dirt floors and whatnot but this was in his house so it was worth it!

 We have some cool branch missionaries who are really helping us out in the work! We have started to challenge members we see to read a chapter of the Book of Mormon daily and we will follow up with them and ask what they learned from it. We have had some really, really cool things happen when we do that. A recent convert who was struggling, and I was able to share a scripture that was what he was thinking at that moment. A really cool experience with following the spirit. That morning I felt to read from the Bible and in the meeting, we were talking about the Book of Mormon but I just wanted to share what I learned from the Bible and it just made sense in his head that there is nowhere else to go but The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because there is no one else who has the fullness of the gospel. Just a sweet week :)

 Love you all!

-Elder Ellsworth

this is Brain—that’s how he spells it so it’s what I call him. He is 10 and has the best English I know 

a recent convert drew this--he is really good!

Gone fishing (I didn’t catch any fish)

it looked cooler in person

father and son

10/30/17

We killed a goat!  I’m doing well--still a bit disturbed by killing a goat.  I just have to thank you for birthing me in the city :) so thank you :)  We were having a zone party, so we got a live goat to eat.  It tasted really good but I haven’t seen anything killed, ever!  It was kind of sad.  It was screaming and whatnot but you know it tasted good. So that was today and now for this week.

So, we left our bikes at a member’s place on Wednesday so we could take a tro to the BUSH.  We got there and came back but we had mid-week.  So then we didn’t pick them up.  They were locked and I just wanted to go home and so we did.  Then we get a call at 10 in the evening and we have to go and walk to pick up our bikes because the member thought people were going to steal them and then he was mad and that wasn’t fun but we went back to him and he laughed it off so it was all okay in the end! 

We went to clean and as I was getting out of the taxi the phone fell out of my pocket and so now it’s lost :( but all is still well! 

On Sunday President Simpson came to my branch and he taught us some really cool things and answered questions in the investigators class.   So, it was cool.  During that class we read about Christ’s life! When we got to the part where he looks down on the cross and says "father forgive them for they know not what they do" (probably should get the exact quote but short on time)  It just hit me that we are literally the reason he was put on the cross! So, thank goodness, he said forgive them! and we also know we need to repent to gain that forgiveness--- but yea that’s my thought :)) love you all and I got to go :)

-Elder Ellsworth

10/23/17

I had a great week. It rained so hard like 4 days this week. Luckily, we were still able to teach. It actually rained at least once a day the past few weeks. I love the rain. It’s just funny that people basically act like it’s a natural disaster in terms of teaching.

 There is one investigator who is HILARIOUS! We can barely teach because she laughs so much at what I do. Like yesterday I was hiccuping (mom, I see why you don’t like them) but she was getting so mad because every two seconds she would hear it. Then I held my breath but I couldn’t even hold it because she was making fun of me! We taught her twice this week but she didn’t come to church! Stubborn girl! She’s funny and will come this week. Her name is Dorah like Dora the Explorer.

I bought a sweet tie. 

 Ghana is sweet the people are sweet and prepared and I am having a ton of fun and my companion is doing amazing! He keeps me going out and having fun :) I didn’t take many pictures :)

Love you all

 -Elder Ellsworth

10/16/17

Well something that I forgot about the last couple weeks was my story about going to pick up my companion from the mission home. So, it started out that me and another Elder in my apartment are training. (His name is Elder Thomas.)

So, we set out on our journey to Accra to spend the night so we can wake up early on Tuesday and be at the Mission Home early. So, we travel and travel and travel and then boom we are in New Town just like that! (New Town is where we needed to go) and Elder Thomas says he knows where to go so I trust him because, you know me, I’m a trusting guy. So, we enter into another tro tro going into new town and we go and we go and we go and we pass a church building. I say “that’s cool”, and then we keep going for a little while. Finally, we reach a big building and he leads me to a staircase and we walk up to the third story. We knock on the door and a lady answers and we were just like--oh no! either we have the wrong place or these Elders haven’t read their white handbooks in a while. It turns out the missionaries moved about 6 months ago! So, being missionaries, we talked to the lady and her name is Alice and we didn’t have any restoration pamphlets on us so we gave her a whole Book of Mormon and took down her number to give to the missionaries there to hopefully go and teach her. It was pretty funny.

 So, that was our adventure this week.

 Not too much happened. We worked and by the end of the week we didn’t reach our goals but we will continue to work this week and improve ourselves daily :)

 -Elder Ellsworth

Our apartment Flooded

10/9/17

If you knew who you were in the pre-mortal life the hairs on the back of your neck would stand up

~~GENERAL CONFERENCE

ONE YEAR DOWN!!

Traditional burning of a white shirt for his 1 year anniversary in the field.

If you knew who you were in the premortal life the hairs on the back of your neck would stand up :)) 

~~GENERAL CONFERENCE

This week was pretty much the same as last week and I have no time again….

Last week after picking up my son (my trainee) we couldn’t get a taxi and so the office worker, Mathew, had to drive us to circle (big market to get a tro tro).  We get to circle get all our bags out of the car and my son is now walking with his bags and its raining and some super crazy dude comes over and tries taking his bag from him to try and get some money from us for carrying his bag.  We were like no! So my son is wrestling with this dude for like 30 seconds and I’m like “Oh no!  He’s going to want to get back in the car and say take me home!”  But we get the bag away and walked to our tro tro very calmly after that experience.  The tro then took 5 hours (not really--only 3) but my point is--it was about 10:15 by the time we got in the apartment AND get this!  NO LIGHTS!  Power off! (power outage). What a warm welcome for my son.  But he was fine with it because he’s a baller.  So, the next 3 nights, again, lights off, lights off, lights off.  So for my sons first 3 nights in the field it was lights off! Such a baller.

This week:

On Tuesday we had 6 new investigators, all in one day!  What a day! On Wednesday we tried to find a new investigator in the BUSH! Remember, no addresses or street (dirt road) names.  I got good pictures of my comp but it took us 3 hours to find her!  We passed by her turn, which you can’t see and we didn’t know because we had no guide.  We were with the branch mission leader, who is hilarious!  (His conversion story is even funnier but that will be another time.)  We finally find her house after we walked a mile past it.  Someone was like, “Oh I know her, she’s just here--and we walk for a MILE again.  (Ghana people :)) We find her we have a sweet lesson and then we walk back to the main road.  We get there and I’m trying to put a marker up for the next time we come and the branch mission leader grabs a plastic bag and sticks his whole arm inside a bush and leaves it there.  I ask him “What are you doing?” He walks away and says "Don’t worry I have a sense of humor”  ??

The Mission is sweet the Book of Mormon is true--read it!!!!

10/2/17

We just got pictures this week.  No time for a weekly letter.  He is training a Missionary right out of the MTC.  Elder Alston from Springfield, Oregon.

 Elders Alston and Ellsworth

 Arriving "home".

General Conference egg...not as good at General Conference Cheesecake or Cinnamon Rolls

 Some kind of moth??  That's his shoe, for size.

 This is the chapel.  It’s not dedicated yet so I think it’s okay to take a picture of it. 

I WISH I could tell about my week.  About and the temple and picking up my companion and the power outages for three nights straight but I have no time.  Other Elders need to get us the computer.  I’m sorry !!!