Guided By The Spirit 3-20-17

Some pretty cool things happened this week regarding the Spirit.  Each experience is different in it’s own way because, well, the Spirit works in many different ways.  Also, a quick note; we have another investigator on date for baptism on Apr. 8.  This man, Lee, has been investigating for 13 years now and has finally come to have a testimony of the Restored Gospel.  He knows and accepts everything so we are looking forward to it.

The first thing I want to share with you happened last Friday.  I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with a newer missionary who is in my District, Elder Battad.  He is a great guy who is still learning the ropes, but will be a great missionary.  We had a rough-ish day and had experienced quite a bit of antagonism.  Some of it was stupid little things like people told us that the picture of Christ we wanted to give them wasn't Him and how He didn't look like that.  We received a lot of criticism in general and were even asked if we would join a Baptist church.  When we tried to answer the question, the man kept interrupting us until he shut the door in our faces.  It was a little bit of a discouraging day because we had done so much finding and had only found one new investigator (which was still great of course).  However, at the very end of the day we had an amazing experience.  

We knocked on the door of a man in his 60’s who lived alone.  We introduced ourselves and said why we were there.  He said that we should probably move on because he worked for a Christian radio station for 7 years and had talked to many different preachers.  He said he would always ask questions that he wanted answers to, but no one was ever able to do it.  So I said, "Well sir, I guarantee that we will have answers to your questions that no one else will."  So he said fine and asked us a question we would all like to know and have a better understanding of:  Where did God come from?  Did He just appear or what?  Well, we told him unfortunately that is one question we don't know the answer to.  He said, "See, you can't answer my questions."  I said we can answer a lot, just not that one.  So he decided to give it one more try before we left.  He asked us, "If God is such a loving Father, then why would He condemn one of His children to Hell forever?  That's like a parent telling their child they can't leave their room forever."  So I explained the whole thing, mainly because Elder Battad hasn't had too much experience with this yet and didn't know how to go about it.  I told him about our belief in the three Kingdoms of Glory and how a loving Father in Heaven provided a way for us to live in a wonderful place that will be comfortable to us.  I explained a lot more about it, but it was a 20 minute conversation so that’s a lot to write.  In the end, we were able to answer his question, which was awesome and I tried to see if we could come back and answer more of his questions.  He declined the offer so I tried giving him the Plan of Salvation pamphlet that I used to teach him.  He said that we might be short one sometime so we should not give it to him.  Well, both Elder Battad and I knew he was worth it and we would never be short one so I left it on his porch anyways.  Haha - I'm so sneaky.  

Afterwards as we were walking back to our car, Elder Battad said that he could feel the Spirit and that he had learned a lot from that experience.  I knew when I looked back on it that it was not me doing the talking, but that the Spirit was working through me.  I don't think I even had to pause or use a filler word, which definitely means the Spirit was there because that is something I am constantly working on.  

Another great experience we had was with the Drake family.  I was leading the lesson and before I even started it, we were already discussing a principle of the gospel that the family definitely needed to hear, especially the daughter.  We talked about the principle of forgiveness.  The commandment is to forgive everyone, no matter who they are or what they have done.  We also need to forgive ourselves for anything we have done.  That one can be hard, but it is doable.  We then lead into the Plan of Salvation and incorporated the Atonement and sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  This is another example of how the Lord will direct these lessons the way they need go to so it can benefit His children.  The daughter has had a trouble with keeping her commitment to read and when I followed up this time, she couldn't remember what she had read, but she did read and she said it was one of the best night’s sleep she has had in a long time.  So cool!  Another great experience of the power of the Book of Mormon.

Lastly, we had a Zone Conference, which is always awesome, but was a little boring for me this time because I had already heard the trainings in our MLC meeting, but I still learned some new things.  President Griffin was finishing his training and he had pointed out an Elder that was going home and talked about how fast your mission experience goes.  That impressed upon me how my time is coming to an end here in a few months.  I reflected upon my mission so far and thought about the time I have left.  I want to leave it all out on the field with no regrets at the end.  I want to make sure every day I work so hard that when I lay down in bed at night, I know that I did everything I could for my Savior that day.  I have had a glorious time so far and it only gets better.  I don't know if I have ever felt so happy before.  Even with the frustrating bad moments it is still good.  I have learned things I never would have learned before.  I still have a lot to learn and I look forward to that too.  The impression I got was to make sure I keep doing my best each and every day.  This is the third way the Spirit works; through the impressions and revelations you receive that will help you and will give you that motivational push you need.  The Lord wants you to do your best and He will help you with that through the Spirit.

Quick note: there is a lot more meaning to the hymn Nearer My God To Thee.  If you want to learn more, go study Genesis 28 and compare the lyrics with those verses.  You also might need to do some study on the story in that chapter.

I leave these things with all of you whom I love in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Ellison

Tracting In The Rain

Helping some Senior Couples Move a New Apartment in Our Zone

Lunch After the Move

Tracting With E. Battad

Name That Tune

Exchanges For Days! And Dates! 3-13-17

So this week I am going to switch up my weekly email and see how it goes.  To give a little briefing; we drove to Knoxville twice this week.  We had 2 exchanges with the Chatt Valley Elders and the APs.  We also have a family on date for baptism April 1st.  No, it is not an April Fool’s joke.  They are an awesome family.  A little funny thing though about them.  We have had about 5 lessons with them in the past few weeks since I have been here and I have only got to teach them for 1 of those.  It's just the way it goes when we have exchanges and team up splits with members.

So some cool things happened this week.  On Tuesday we had a lesson with the Drakes.  I was going to it with a member and I had no idea what I was supposed to teach for the lesson.  We said a prayer and during the prayer I had the thought to do a testimony meeting.  The husband and wife are members and the daughter is not.  The wife is recently baptized so we are working with both of them.  We started out by reading Alma 7 and then we started talking about baptism.  I asked both of the parents what it meant to them to have the gospel in their lives.  They both gave good testimonies and so did the member I had with me.  We turned our focus more onto the girl at this point and we talked to her about some of her concerns.  In the end, I was able to bear my testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon.  It was one of the most powerful lessons I have been in.  The daughter is not quite ready, but I think she felt something and made some progress.

Another thing that happened this week was when I was watching the Youth Face to Face with Elder Holland and President Eyring.  They talked about prayer one time and I took some of the things that they said and applied them.  I have tried to say my prayers by kneeling upright.  Not leaning on or over anything.  And before I even start praying, I sit there and wait until I feel ready to approach the throne of God.  Then at the end of my prayer I stay kneeling upright for a time, just listening.  Having my mind clear and just trying to focus on the Spirit and any impressions I receive.  The first time I did this I saw a huge change and I have done it ever since.  A lot of times we say our prayers and then just move on.  A prayer is a conversation and it isn't much of a conversation if we just talk and don’t listen for a response.  We talk and then He talks.  I encourage all of you to try it.  It makes a huge difference.  I would also encourage you to take a question you have to church and pray about it during the Sacrament and then listen to the talks and lessons given.  I did that for a question I had and during the Sacrament I received my answer through the scriptures.  A scripture came to my mind after my little prayer and it was definitely the answer I was supposed to receive.  Church is the best place to receive revelation.

I love you all and leave these things with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Ellison

Learning to Play My Ukelele

The District

Nice View

Transfers

E. Leahman Returned for a Visit

Building Up Trust 3-6-17

So this week was a little bit of a rough week.  We had some good things happen, but it just didn't seem like we had much going for us this week unfortunately.

Monday it was only our District at the church for P-day.  We played a bunch of different games and sometimes had jam sessions on the ukuleles and the piano.  That night we tried a few people, but nothing was going.  We did have a cool experience though.  We had to watch our miles on the car while we tried a former.  It was the last person we were going to be able to try before we went home.  He wasn't home, but his neighbors were moving.  It was dark and late and so we went over to see if they needed help and sure enough, we were able to help them move some of the bigger things.  It was cool to see how the Lord provided us with something to do because we were out trying to work.

Tuesday we had District Meeting.  It down poured that day too.  We haven't had a rain like that in a long time.  Well God is good because the rain stopped right as we started proselyting.  We saw Clyde and read from the Book of Mormon with him.  After him we did a bunch of finding and found a few potentials.  That night, since we are now covering the YSA, we went to Institute which was super good.  It was really awesome to see a few people from back when I was here the first time.

Wednesday was an interesting day with lessons.  We had 3 lessons that were more about facts and information.   We had 2 lessons where we used one of the Official Declarations from the church in each one.  That afternoon we went with the Senior couple to see a couple YSA members.  That night we went to our recent converts and had an awesome lesson based off of 2 Nephi 31.

Thursday we did a lot of finding, but had a super cool experience though.  As we were tracting, we came to a four way stop.  Elder Smith asked, "Which way, boss?"  I said, "Press forward."  So we kept on going straight, but before we got to the first house, I had a thought, "No, we need to go right."  I am working on following promptings, even if it might just be my thoughts, but it is something good.  So we went right.  Well nothing really happened the whole 2 hours we were tracting until we accidentally knocked on a member’s home.  We talked briefly and said a prayer with them.  After the prayer, the husband said, "I know why you are here. You can help give my son a blessing."  His son was sick so we got to give him a blessing.  It was super cool because in the blessing he was told he would be feeling better in a couple days and this Sunday the whole family was there.  It was super cool.

Friday we did exchanges with the Dayton Elders.  I was with Elder Charles.  We did finding all day.  Highlight of the day; I got the cops called on me again and we got kicked out of a neighborhood for soliciting even though we aren't solicitors.  We left before the cops arrived.

Saturday was another lame day.  We weekly planned.  Then we drove to downtown Chatt to contact some YSA, but nothing happened.  It was in the projects, but since it didn't work out, we went to my old apartment.  We went and walked the Walking Bridge and the streets of downtown.  Felt like home.  It was funny to see that when we were walking in the projects, I was not walking through with the confidence I used to have.  It's weird how that went away after being gone 3 months.  As we were walking through we passed some kids playing and a little girl yelled and pointed at us, "CRIMINALS!"  That was pretty funny.  Also, not racist in any way, just for your information, the projects in Downtown Chattanooga are all black people.  So she probably called us that because we were white or maybe just for fun.  Boy, after being in the projects and driving through the streets that I used to bike everyday, I sure do miss that area and the wonderful people there.

Sunday we are back to the all-day church now that we have the YSA.  My old investigator Olivia was there so that was cool to see her again.  We had a Linger Longer afterwards.  I also got to see former Elder Leahman again.  He came back to tour his mission with his parents so that was really cool.  That was about it for this week.

Well, to talk about my title briefly, this week may have been rough and hard and trying and testing, but it was all things for the Lord to see if He can trust us with someone He has prepared right now. We will keep working through the tough times, but we know that this is how the Lord builds His trust in us.  The same goes for all of us not just in missionary work.  The Lord puts us through things to see what choices we will make based on what happens.  If we can keep pressing forward and keep the faith, then we will be rewarded with blessings.  So DON'T LOSE HOPE!  If you start to lose hope and maybe make wrong choices, always look to the Savior for help and He will give it to you.  I love you all and I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Ellison

We Made A Jesus Wall

The Walking Bridge At Night

My Old Apartment

Selfie Status:  Missionaries

18 Months, Oh Boy! 2-27-17

Well, time has just flown by.  I have now served the equivalent of a Sister Missionary’s mission.  I am ready for these next 6 months and it is going to be a lot fun and hard work.  My goal is to not start dying off at the end, but to be sprinting through to the finish.

Monday we had P-day with our District and a couple other Elders came down too.  We just did a bunch of fun stuff except we started it off by doing the Tampico challenge.  The challenge is to be the first one to finish a gallon of Tampico.  [Mom's Note:  DO NOT try this at home - most people don't realize it is dangerous and can actually kill people - For Real!]  Well, only a few got somewhat close and those few either puked or almost puked.  It was hilarious.  That night we had a Restoration lesson with a lady named Makeeta (pronounced Markeeta).  Then we had to stay up super late to plan our trainings for Zone Training Meeting.

Tuesday we had Zone Training Meeting.  We also, because of his new schedule, had interviews with President Griffin.  It was a quick one for me.  So I gave my first training and I was so nervous.  Doesn't help that I was not at the training where they were taught about the things I had to teach.  Plus we didn't train on anything doctrine related, it was just on the Mission President's new schedule. Then we had a District Leader meeting after that, but we did get a perk.  It was Sister Griffin's birthday so at lunch we got some birthday hugs.  Well after that we cleaned up and then went and got some ice cream.  We did some finding and then did splits.  I went to a less-active’s home for a Home Teaching visit.

Wednesday we did a bunch of "former" clean up.  Then we had a lesson with a guy named Chester.  It went pretty well.  Then we went and had a lesson with the Drakes.  We watched the Restoration video and then talked about it.

Thursday we did weekly planning.  Then we just did a bunch of finding.  At the end of the day we helped the Drakes move into their new place by moving some furniture.  Also today I got my shoe bit by a Chihuahua. That is the closest it has gotten to getting my skin.

Friday we did exchanges and I went with Elder Clavin.  We started out with a pretty good lesson with a guy named Samuel.  Then we did some tracting.  After lunch we headed out to the Drakes again to move in some more stuff for them.  Since it was so far out, we did some tracting while we were there, but it did not bring forth much fruit.  Seeds were planted, but that was all.  In the ending we had much more success when we got 3 potentials in about 30 minutes.

Saturday was a boring day.  We started out helping someone move and then most of our day was spent putting together Stake Correlation numbers.  At the end of the day we had a lesson with a less-active that is in the YSA.  We just shared a quick thought and got to know her, especially now that we cover the YSA.  I'm excited to get them back.

Sunday we had church and had a couple people show up.  Then later we tried to stop in on some people, but no luck so we went to the Church of God of Prophecy.  They were having a cultural event so it was just a bunch of singing and dancing.  It was pretty good, just not something you would see in the chapel of our church.  Afterwards we talked with some of them and they were really nice people.  They even gave us a welcome at the event.

So my thought today is going to be brief.  It is a quote that came from Elder Smith's training he did by himself in Zone Training Meeting.  He was talking on happiness and this is a quote he came up with on his mission.  "Success never brings lasting happiness, but lasting happiness always brings success."  I hope that sticks with you as much as it did to many of us.  Have a wonderful week y'all.  I love you all.

Elder Ellison

Moving a Bed Redneck Style - Yeah, We Helped

E Smith and I Riding in Style

Purification 2-20-17

So I will start off by explaining my title because I will probably mention when we started it later on. So Elder Smith and I are doing this thing called the Purification Challenge.  It is where you come up with a list of things you want to improve on or stop doing.   After that, for the next 40 days you work on all of those things on the list and you start the first day off with a fast.  The goal is to improve yourself and to improve in the strength of the Spirit.  Also, a little bit about my companion Elder Smith.  He is from Washington, but for a year before he left, his family has lived in central California.  We also have a lot in common.  He loves sports and we have a good time every day.  He is super fun and is a good missionary.  He has been out for about 14 months.  

Monday we got transfer calls, we got some haircuts, and then we just hung out at the church.  Nothing too crazy.

Tuesday I had my last day at the Richard's farm.  I am sad to have to leave it.  Good memories.  Later we went and saw Dan.  Then we saw Zach and taught him about the Word of Wisdom.  I got to say goodbye to them too.  Then we went over and visited with some less-actives.  We gave the husband a blessing too.  That was about it.

Wednesday was a fun day.  So we got up and drove 2 hrs. to Knoxville and said goodbye to Elder Bingham and then I got my new companion.  I also got to see a bunch of friends and my son, Elder Thomas.  Then we drove down to Chattanooga which was another 2 hrs.  We were headed to do some work, but got notified that a Sister accidentally took the keys to her old area's car.  We had to drive all the way back to Knoxville and get the keys.  We stopped in at the Mission Home and got some dinner so I got to see it for the first time.  I also got to say goodbye to some of the departing missionaries.  It's weird to think that the Sisters I came out with are going home now.  Then we drove all the way back to Chattanooga and passed it to a place called Dalton, Georgia to deliver the keys.  We got back home around 9:45pm - 8 hours in the car was fun.

Thursday we started off doing a Home Teaching visit to a less-active.  Then we did a lot of finding and we found 3 new investigators.  We also get to go play basketball on Thursday nights with a bunch of non-members and less-actives with some actives.

Friday we had District Meeting.  It was my first one in a long time where I wasn't in charge of it.  This was also the day we started the Purification Challenge with a fast.  We got a few potentials and a new investigator.  It feels like normal to be back in the Ghettos again.  I love it.  That night we had a lesson with a recent convert and we went through the introduction to the Book of Mormon.  It was a much better lesson than we thought it would be.

Saturday we did some weekly planning.  Then we went to a few lesson appointments, but they fell through unfortunately.  We did have a sweet lesson with a guy named Clyde.  We taught him the Restoration.  He accepted a Book of Mormon and told us he was going to study it and cross reference it with the Bible.  Then we were going to have a lesson in Downtown Chatt at the church building there.  I was so excited to go back there.  I suggested we ride the bus to save miles.  It was Elder Smith's first time riding a bus.  As we were on the bus, our appointment canceled on us.  Well that made me sad, but we are going to ride the bus there again when we reschedule the appointment.  That night we had dinner at a member’s home with one of our investigator families.  We had a lesson afterwards and we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We also committed them to come to church.  The awesome part was that missionaries have been trying every time they teach them, but because of schedules they couldn’t come.  However, recently things have changed and they are now available.

Sunday that family came to church.  We were so excited for them.  Also Elder Smith gave as awesome talk.  He said that half of it, he had no idea what he was talking about, it was just the Spirit.  Well, because of his talk we got a referral from a member after church.  That was awesome.  The rest of the day we did some finding and had a lesson with the recent convert again.  We are doing the new Member Lessons with her.  We are also trying to teach her non-member daughter at the same time.

Well, I have only been here for a few days and I already have learned a ton.  One quote I want to share that came from Elder Smith's talk is, "Satan is voting against you and Christ is voting for you. You are the swing vote."  It is our choice that determines which side we are going to let win.  Are we keeping the commandments and doing our best to live them, or are we trying to find loopholes to get around them and trying to see how far we can go before we are in trouble?  Do we live the Gospel that we have been blessed to have in our lives, or do we take it for granted and not think much of it during the week?  We must be fully committed to the gospel.  Standing firm in it.  Standing takes both feet and saying I am 100% in this, no matter what.  The choice is up to us who we will let win in this election, no one else.  Who will we choose?  That is my little thought for today.  I will end in the name of He who I pray we all choose, even Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Ellison

Dan

Br. Richards

Goodbye My Son, E. Bingham

All Packed Up

Headed Back to Chatt 2-13-17

Well as today was transfer calls, we found out the verdict and something unusual happened.  I will not be finishing Elder Bingham's training.  He will be receiving a new companion as will I.  I am leaving Bristol to go back to Chattanooga and serve in the Harrison Bay area as a Zone Leader.  My new companion will be Elder Smith.  I am sad to leave this area, but I am excited for what else is in store for me to learn.  I have learned a lot in this area alone, some of which is why I was sent here I think.  I could not have learned those things anywhere else.  Well now on to the week.

Monday we just played a bunch of games with the Sisters.  One was Scrabble and I won twice.  That never happens, EVER!  I think that is the first time I have ever won that game and I didn't even have to make up words to do it either.  Later we did some work on the Ward Directory to find people to teach through it.

Tuesday we did our usual service at the Richard's.  We pulled up okra and eggplant plants.  They have a serious root system.  Luckily the roots were mostly dead and it had rained overnight which made it easier to pull them up.  We later had a lesson with Wendi and we helped her to find times in her busy day to read the scriptures and pray.  Then we met with Dan and we were able to figure out a few concerns of his that have been preventing him from coming to church.  So we were able to work those out mostly and get him motivated to come this week.

Wednesday we drove down to Johnson City to do exchanges.  We split off and I was with Elder Christensen.  He is from Alberta, Canada.  We had a great day.  We taught some awesome lessons and found 3 new investigators as well.  We also went to lunch at a place called, Korean Taco.  That was an interesting place.  It was pretty good though.  That night we had a blast because there was 5 missionaries in one apartment.

Thursday we drove back and had District Meeting.  It snowed that day and was super cold.  We mainly just did a bunch of finding and drop-in visits.  Then we went out with Bro Dunn who is the Patriarch in this Stake.  We gave a blessing to a member who had had some health problems that day.

Friday we had weekly planning.  Then we went and tried a couple people.   We then had another lesson with Dan.  We continued to help him understand some things about the gospel.  Then we had a dinner with some members after that.

Saturday we did our usual service at the Davison's.  After that we did some finding before our lesson with Zach.  We taught him the 10 commandments.  We had to reschedule his baptism for Mar. 11.  Then we just did some more finding.

Sunday was a little uneventful.  We had church and then we got to go give the Sacrament to a member who is in the hospital right now.  Not much else happened.

So one of the things I have learned in this area is how to have more faith and trust in God.  The fact that no matter what happens, I need to have trust in God that things will happen the way they need to.  It can be very discouraging when nothing is really happening in missionary work and you don't have hardly anyone in your teaching pool.  You are just going around and tracting or just finding all the time.  However, the Lord knows exactly when people need the restored gospel in their life as well as anything in our own lives.  We may face discouragement or have hard times, but we should always know that a loving Heavenly Father is blessing us with those things for us to learn and grow from.  He is helping us become stronger people.  This are His intentions and it is our choice how we will respond.  Will we sit around and sulk and think "poor me"?  Or will we keep moving forward and look to the Lord always for help and guidance? This is just part of what I have learned.  Sometimes things don't work out the way we want, but always the way we need.  I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Ellison

Awesome For February!

This Dress Code Should Get Approved

The Last Week 2-6-17

So we are coming up on the last week of our transfer. Elder Bingham has improved so much throughout these last few weeks.  It has been a fun transfer and looking forward to the next one.  We had a decent week with some good things happening.

Monday we got to go down to Johnson City with a bunch of other missionaries again.  We played basketball like all day.  We went to the Community Center and played with the kids there too.  My team went undefeated which was awesome.  We played about 10 games in a row with like no stops in between.  I was so exhausted by the end of that day.  It was great.  We finished the day by doing some Ward Directory sorting.

Tuesday we did our usual service at the Richard's.  We later had a lesson with Zach.  We taught him the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Then we went and had dinner with some members.  We went out on a Home Teaching visit afterwards. 

Wednesday we had our District Meeting and then had interviews with President.  We talked about a few different things.  It's always awesome to be able to talk with President Griffin.  We then had exchanges with the Marion Elders and Elder Bradford stayed with me in Bristol.  We went out and did some finding.  We were able to find a potential investigator and hand out a Book of Mormon, which we haven't been able to do much recently.  Later we met with Dan again.  We had an awesome lesson with him and helped him see the importance of coming to church and how it can help him understand and receive an answer about the restored gospel.  Then we got to help out with the Young Men’s activity.  They were doing it on missionary work.  We got to bear our testimonies to them about being missionaries.  It is interesting to see how my view on missionary work and it’s importance has changed and grown stronger over the course of my mission.

Thursday we exchanged back and then we did lots of finding.  We then had a sweet lesson with a less-active.  She is starting to get more active again.  We answered some of the questions she had and read from the Book of Mormon with her.  We also gave her a blessing for a few things she was wanting help with from God.  Elder Bingham performed his first sealing part of the blessing.  He did a great job for his first time.  One of the cool things I want to share from this visit was something that only the Spirit could have had a part in.  As we were answering her questions, one was on fasting.  She wanted to know how she could obey the law of the fast even though she can't do a normal fast due to diabetes.  We explained to her that fasting is a way to show God that you are willing to give up something in return for help from him.  She then replied, "I could fast from using cigarettes."  She is wanting to quit smoking and only the Spirit of God could have prompted her to say that.  She was going to go 24 hrs. without smoking as her way of fasting.  It was awesome.  It was even better when we told her that this next Sunday was fast Sunday.  She got super excited about that. 

Friday was our good ole’ weekly planning day.  After that we went tracting for a couple hours.  We were able to hand out 2 Book of Mormons which was awesome.  We talked to, more like listened to, one guy talk to us about a bunch of gospel stuff.  It is always awesome to me to meet nice people like him who just share their testimonies with us and their knowledge to help us learn too.  We met another guy later named Terrell, who seemed interested in talking to us.  He just didn’t have time that day, but asked us to come back.  We got a couple potentials on that street to go back and see.

Saturday we didn't get to do our usual service so we went and did some tracting.  Pretty cool is the first door a man answered and invited us to come to his church (Penecostal) and have lunch and watch the Super Bowl with them.  I was super pumped and totally wanted to, but we couldn't find his church so we couldn't go.  Plus we didn't think it was appropriate since we aren’t allowed to watch the Super Bowl.  It's funny though, some churches out here will close for the day because they think no one will come on Super Bowl Sunday.

Sunday was an awesome day at church.  We first had a ward fast for missionary work in the area.  We also had an awesome Testimony meeting to which I felt the Spirit very strong.  The rest of the day we went and saw a member who had not been to church in a while. 

One of my thoughts this week has been on the Atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  It is awesome to think that He did that specifically for me.  To think that for at least one second, He felt all of my pains, sufferings, and trials.  Each of us had time given to Him.  He felt each one of our struggles separately.  The Atonement is meant to be very personal.  It is not just some big random thing out there, but is something we can use every single moment of our lives.  Why did He do this?  Right at the start He realized what He was about to go through and asked, "let this cup pass from me."  But He persevered and pushed on.  "The goodness in Him allowed faith to triumph..."  Why?  Because, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15: 13).  He pushed on because of His love for us.  He called us His friends.  Because we are His friends and He loves us, He did it.  He said we are His friends, but is He our friend?  He goes on in that scripture in verse 14 and says "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I have commanded you."  That is how we can make Him our friend.  He loved us in order to go through all that He did.  Can we not do our best to do what He has asked?  Can we not do our best to try and take away some of that burden He had taken in that garden?  I was reading this last week in 2 Nephi 9, and I recommend going and reading this chapter as it talks a little bit about the gospel and the Atonement, but as I was reading, there were a couple things that stood out to me that helps me see what I must do in order to strive to do my best.  Verse 45 says, "O, my beloved brethren, turn away from your sins; shake off the chains of him that would bind you fast; come unto that God who is the rock of your salvation. 46 Prepare your souls... 49 Behold, my soul abhorreth sin, and my heart delighteth in righteousness;..."  I believe that if we can apply some of these things and work at them, as well as strive to keep all the commandments we have been given, that we will be able to shake off those chains that hold us down and we will be new people with a desire for righteousness and we will be able to take away a small portion of that burden.  In all, we will come unto our God and show our love for Him.  I leave this with you in the name of our Savior and Redeemer of the world, Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Ellison

Weekly Service at the Richard's Farm

Pres. Got Skills  -  Double Texting & Swag!

Missions are a little rough on shoes, ya think?

Taste Testing - Is this Chicken Liver or Dog Food?

Week of the Roller Coaster 1-30-17

Well the end of January has come, which is my last one in the mission field.  Kind of a weird thought.  This week brought us a little bit of snow again and has also had some ups and downs.  More ups then downs though.  Let the week begin.

Monday was awesome!  We went down to Johnson City and hung out with a bunch of missionaries.  We also played basketball with a bunch of other people at a community center.  That was a ton of fun and my team won almost every game, even though we played against a lot of kids that know how to play.  In one of the games I jammed my finger super bad.  It hurt bad and I thought it was broken, but I continued to play anyway.  Ball is life, right?  Then that night we had Family Home Evening at the Richard's with our Bishop and his family and an 18 year old kid named Ethyn who attends the college in town.   We also got a text earlier that day from Lina saying she didn't want to meet anymore because it is hard for her to understand with the language barrier.  So that was super sad.  We tried to see her a couple times, just at least one more time, but she never answered the door or our phone calls or texts.  We hope to get a hold of her at some point, but we are going to give her some space for a little bit.

Tuesday we started out doing service at the Richard's.  Later we had 3 lessons fall through.  We were super bummed out.  We tried contacting some less-actives and then we got some ice cream to lift our spirits.  Ice cream makes everything better.  We then had a late dinner with some members at a place called Cook-Out.  It is pretty good - we need them out west.

Wednesday we went to Kingsport for a Missionary Worldwide Devotional broadcast.  We got to watch the Missionary Council discuss certain things about how we as missionaries should be working and teaching.  Then at the end we got some big news.  They changed our schedules a little bit so we can now go to bed earlier if we want and we have more flexibility with our schedules.  P-days also got longer, so that was pretty cool.  Once we got back to our area, we did some finding and at one point we were in the boonies.  We were driving back and were told by Elder Garmin (the GPS) to turn onto a road.  It ended up being a one lane dirt road to nowhere with no way to turn around.  We drove on it for about 4 miles until it was getting dark and we didn't have cell service.  So if we were in trouble, we were kind of done for. 

Thursday we did some tracting for a couple hours and hardly anyone was home.  Later we got to our lesson a little early so we did some tracting around their home and we found a potential investigator. Then we had our lesson with Zach and we taught him the Restoration.  He is a 12 yr. old boy who is the only member of his family that isn't baptized yet. 

Friday we did some weekly planning.  Later that day we had another lesson with Zach and we taught the Plan of Salvation.  We also set a date for baptism on Feb. 18.  So that will be exciting.  Later we had an awesome lesson with Dan.  The member who came with us basically ended up teaching the whole Plan of Salvation, which was awesome.  We set a date with Dan for March 4.  He accepted, so we will be working with him on that.  He is in a wheelchair, but wants to be able to walk when he is at church.  We ended up giving him a Priesthood blessing.  It was a much different blessing than I have ever given.  I gave the sealing part of the blessing and half way through, Dan just starts saying his own prayer right in the middle of it.  We just sat there with our hands on his head and listened to him pour out his soul and show his faith in God for a couple minutes.  Finally, we finished the blessing.  It was cool to see him show his faith like that even if it was a little different than normal.  After him we gave another blessing to a less-active that was going in for surgery in a couple days.  She was crying during the blessing and even though it might not do anything, she felt the Spirit during that blessing.  I know that at some point she will come back to church.

Saturday we did our usual service at the Davison's.  Then we went to a funeral for the husband of a less-active.  He had actually been a potential investigator in our Area Book, but now he is being taught by someone else.  Then we saw Bill again after about a month.  We talked about a lot of different things and hopefully it will start to click for him because he has a lot of questions.  We tried contacting a few other people after that for the rest of the evening.

Sunday was an alright day.  Nothing too special happened.  That evening we had dropped in on a less-active family.  The wife shared an experience she had a while back that had many instances where you could see God watching over her and the people she was traveling with as they went to the temple.  I won't go into it, but it was really cool. 

Well I would like to share something with you guys that I learned this week.  I actually learned this from the member that came with us to our lesson with Dan.  We were talking about Adam and Eve being in the Garden of Eden.  While they were there, they did not know the difference between happiness or sadness.  Good or bad.  They were literally in a state of innocence.  Almost like a new born baby.  The garden that they were living in at the time was prepared by God and it was amazing.  It provided them with everything they needed and it was beautiful.  Now this is what I learned.  Adam and Eve did not know about the beauty of this garden.  They had nothing to compare it to and so it was just where they lived.  They did not think too much about it.  I never had thought about how they didn't know about the beauty of the garden like we do.  We all wish we could have been there or seen it, but they knew nothing else.  So that is just what I wanted to share from this week.  I would like to leave you all with a little quote that can help all of us in times of discouragement or when we feel like giving up. "The strong people dig down deeper, and find a better way."  I hope that this can help any of you or someone you may know.  It helps me all the time.  I leave this as my hope and prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Ellison

My Poor Jammed Finger - Ball is Life!

On State Street Right On the Border of TN & VA

The Lord's Plan Is Perfect 1-23-17

Oh man!  I have no idea where to begin for this awesome week.  First is sadly our 60 degree weather in January will be coming to an end this next week.  Also, before I begin, this week was full of amazing miracles, but also still had some sad moments.

Monday we invited some of the youth to our P-day and had a good time.  I also got some exciting news.  Down in my last area, Chattanooga, Hayden, the 9 yr old girl with major ADHD, got baptized last weekend.  I was super happy when I heard that because I thought she wouldn't be baptized for a while because of her attention span.  So that was awesome.

Tuesday we did service at the Richard's.  Bro Richard was just called to be our new Ward Mission Leader.  After our service, we had 2 lessons.  The first was a lady named Wendi.  She had been taught everything by missionaries in another area, but she had recently moved into our area.  So we mainly just got to know her for our first visit.  Then we had a lesson with Lina.  It was interesting because the member we had with us couldn't speak Spanish either, but we did well and taught her the Restoration.  Then we had an appointment at 5:30, which ended up falling through because she was sick with the flu, but we had gotten there 15 minutes early.  I thought, "We have a few extra minutes so we can just sit here in the car until the time for the lesson."  However, I kept having this urge that we should be effective and knock some doors, even for a few minutes.  So that is what we did.  The first door we knocked on answered and a kid opened the door, but then we heard a woman inside ask who it was.  We stepped in the door way and the lady said, "I can't believe this."  We were a little confused and she asked why we were there.  We said we were just knocking doors in the area, nothing special.  She told us that she was a member and we didn't have her records from where she moved from.  She gave us her phone number and said she wanted to talk to the Bishop.  We are not too sure how interested she is in coming back to church, but it just goes to show that if we had just sat there and waited a few minutes instead of using the most of our time, we would never have found her and the Lord would have lost a little trust in us in listening to Him and His promptings.  Later that evening we had a lesson with some less-actives that are working on coming back so they can be sealed in the temple.

Wednesday was our sad day.  Good came later in the day, but to start we had some sadness.  We met with Miss Rush.  We did some service for her.  Then later in our visit came a very dreadful moment. We had to tell her that after 4 years straight of meeting with the missionaries, we would not be able to come by anymore.  My heart was wrenching as we told her this.  She understood why and took it well.  She is a very nice lady and has great faith in Christ, she just needed more time to be polished and prepared.  After that we met with a less-active member.  We got to know him as well and invited him back to church.  He has been to McCall, Idaho a few times for his work which is pretty cool.  He has been all over the country.  Then we met with Dan again.  We taught him the Restoration as well.  He accepted soft baptismal invitation.  It is awesome to see that just a couple weeks ago we were struggling to find people to teach and now we have a few people and even some that are accepting baptism.  The Lord knows when His children are ready.

Thursday we had a Zone Conference and we were trained on a few things.  One was how to work with the Ward Councils and find people to teach through them.  That was done by President Griffin.  The Zone Leaders trained on how we can help people attend church.  Then we got to hear Elder Leahman, my past companion, give his departing testimony.  It is sad to see that I am again losing another friend in my mission.  Then we had another training by our Mission President.  He trained us on repentance and forgiveness.  He related it to us and the people we teach.  He talked about how we all have chains of the Devil and how we need to get rid of them.  We carry them until we can let them go.  We let them go by other people helping us and showing us how.  We need to show our investigators how they can let go of their chains.  It was a good conference.  We then got back to our area and had another lesson with Lina.  This lesson was amazing.  First we had a Spanish speaker there so she could speak her thoughts more.  Second is she got an answer that it is true.  She had read about baptism and thought that was something she wanted to do since it was a commandment of God.  We taught her the Plan of Salvation.  At the end of the lesson we set a date for baptism on Feb. 11.  She also told us something really cool.  Back in November/December she had been thinking about how she wanted to come back to church.  She has been before.  She didn't know if she should just show up one Sunday or call the missionaries.  She made up excuses like that is weird or awkward and so she didn't know what to do.  She then made a New Year Resolution that she would start coming.  Well on Dec. 30 Elder Anderson and I were just doing drop in visits on people we didn't know.  We saw the name of a less-active named Rex.  We didn't know anything about him and had no info.  So we went by to see if we could meet him.  Well he wasn't there, but we had talked to him on a Skype call they were having at the time and he told us to teach her.  Well she knew that by us coming over that night God's was answering her and telling her to come to church.  We would never had known that had happened if she had not said anything.  This event proves that the Lord is guiding us through our faith to those people who are ready, even when we don't recognize it at first.

Friday was an alright day.  Our 2 appointments either cancelled or rescheduled.  We had some weekly planning.  Then we spent the whole day finding.  Nothing too major happened.  While tracting, we did have a guy show us a Holy Bible he had that was from the 1600s.  That was pretty cool.

Saturday we had our weekly service at the Davison's.  Then we finally got into a less-active family's home.  We had been trying for weeks and persistence eventually payed off.  The daughter told us the day before when we stopped and set up this appointment that she told her parents that they were going to have to let us in at some point.  So we talked about church and invited them back.  Most of the family said they would come.  The family consists of the parents, 3 daughters, and a son.  The boy is the youngest at 12 and he told us as we talked about church that he wanted to be baptized since he had not been yet.  So we are going to start teaching him this next week.  Then we had a lesson with a referral we received.  Her name is Nola.  She had talked with missionaries for a little bit while she was visiting in Mississippi.  So we taught her the Restoration and she also accepted a soft baptismal invitation.  She also asked about coming to church and so we explained that as well.

Sunday was a crazy day. We had to open up the overflow seating for the first time in my entire mission experience.  Why?  Because Elder Bingham was giving a talk and so everyone wanted to hear it.  No, I kid.  He did speak, but actually future Elder Youngblood was giving his farewell talk and so there were lots of visitors.  He is going to Provo, Utah Spanish speaking so look out for him if you are in that area.  He will be a great missionary because of a couple things from his talk.  It was on missionary work.  I could feel the Spirit the whole time he spoke.  His first remarks were about how we should all be there to worship God because this is His church and not because he is leaving for 2 years.  I don't remember anyone else I know saying that in their talks and I really liked that.  I also got to see a couple familiar faces from when I was in Chatt.  Then later in the day we saw the Fonsecas.  We had not seen them in a while so we thought we would drop by and pay them a visit.

My faith grew so much this week.  The Lord truly does have a perfect plan and it doesn't always go along with ours.  We have to put a lot of trust in Him that it will all work out.  We just need to do what we know we should and then we will see the blessings later come from our efforts.  Elder Bingham and I are continually searching out new ways to find people to teach right now and are going to try some new things like teaching the members the Restoration and other ideas from Preach My Gospel.  Oh how I love that manual!  It has truly helped me be a better missionary and servant of Christ.  I would not be anywhere near where I am right now without it.  It truly was inspired by God through all the people it went through to put together.  It is not just for missionaries.  It is for anyone who wants to be better at sharing the gospel with the people around them and it gives different ideas of how you can do that without just walking up to some random stranger and asking if they want to hear a message about Jesus Christ.  That's my job haha.  However, the Lord truly does have His hand in this work and we are working upward and looking for more ways to improve.  Thank you all for your prayers and I love you.  Above all, know that your Father in Heaven loves you even more.

Elder Ellison

E. Youngblood Heading to the MTC

Selfie Level = Amateur

Goodbye E. Leahman!

The Countdown Begins!

What a Week! 1-16-17

So we had a pretty great week.  It started out not so great, but ended better.  It also got up to 70 this week and has been steady at high 50s for the whole week.  It is weird to think that just a week ago we had snow on the ground and it was freezing.  We also have seen some miracles happening the last couple days.  So before I begin the week report, you should know that we were kind of starting from scratch in our teaching pool and so we don't have a lot of people to teach currently.

Monday we hung out at the church with the Sisters and a member from their ward.  We played a new game called Quelf.  It was pretty fun and interesting.  We also got some "humble pie" too.  There was whip cream there too and at some point, I got teamed up on in a whip cream battle.  They got me once, but every other time I was too quick.

Tuesday we started out like usual at the Richard's farm.  We pulled more stakes up out of the ground.  We fed their animals (a great Pyrenees dog named Bear, a goat, and 50 chickens).  As we were getting into the enclosure, I got two hooves in the back from the hungry goat.  Then as I fed the chickens, Bear jumped all me because he wanted to play.  He is one big dog.  So after the farm, we went out with Tyler to see an investigator named Don.  We started talking about the Spirit and then it changed to talking about the difference between judgment and righteous judgement.  That night we had a lesson about the Book of Mormon with an elderly couple who are active members.  After them we had a lesson with a lady named Rhonda.  We ended up reading some of the Book of Mormon with her.  She seems a little more interested than our first lesson with her so we shall see.

Wednesday we had our District Meeting.  We had to change it because of a meeting we had on Thursday.  After lunch, we helped a less-active move a couch out of her home.  Then we went and did a lot of finding.  We finally found one potential investigator.  We have a lesson set for Wednesday so we will see how it goes.

Thursday our day started at 5:30 so that we could be out the door by 6:40.  We had the New Missionary meeting in Knoxville and we were driving some other Elders down too.  It was a good meeting.  Lots of motivational things came out of it.  The meeting was 3 hours and so we didn't get back until about 6:15 that night, but we had 2 awesome lessons.  The first was with a guy named Bill.  He was nice and would listen to us.  He wasn't too interested though.  Cool fact though, he got baptized in the Jordan River over in Israel a few years ago.  The next lesson was with a lady named Edie.  Both of these people were tracted into a month ago when we did exchanges.  We taught Edie the Restoration and had a great lesson with her.  She sincerely told us she would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it.  It was a good night.

Friday was the bomb!  Miracles everywhere!  It started out with some apartment inspections and weekly planning.  It didn't really start until 3.  We went out and did some tracting.  We applied some tips we got from the Elders we drove with to the meeting and we got 2 lessons with some potentials.  We are hoping to see them again this week.  Then we had a lesson with a guy named Dan.  His first question to us was, “What does God want with me?”  He also wanted to learn the basics again because he couldn't remember them.  We taught a couple principles from the Restoration and also answered his questions.  We gave him a Book of Mormon to read and set up another time to see him.  As we were leaving, he asked us what we would do if he wanted to be baptized.  WHAT?!  It was more because he is in a wheelchair and not completely mobile, but we told him we would figure something out.  We then went and saw a less-active.  It was getting towards the end of the night so we went to one of our investigators named Lina.  She is the wife of a less-active.  We met her a couple weeks ago and she is from Columbia.  She speaks broken English so sometimes communication is hard, but not too bad.  We stopped by to deliver a Spanish Book of Mormon for her.  We were able to talk with her for a minute and we invited her to church and she said she would come.  We also set up another appointment for this next week.  So this day was one of the best days we have had in a long time.  We might be able to get a couple of our investigators on date for baptism in these next couple weeks.

Saturday we did some service at the Davison's.  Then we went over to Miss Rush's.  We asked her if she felt like she was ready to find out for herself if this church is true.  She told us that she is not.  Sadly, she might not be for a while.  Give it time and we hope she will, but just not right now.  After her we did some finding.  We stopped in at what we thought was a potential investigator’s home.  We talked to the guy there and he was a little drunk and was trying to act cool and be funny.  He wasn't interested so we just offered a picture of Jesus and he told us there wasn't much use for that there.  Then he walked back inside after leaving us with a comment I have heard numerous times on my mission, "hail S***n."  I just laughed to myself as we walked away and kind of felt bad for the guy that he chose to do that, but it was a first for Elder Bingham.  We continued on like nothing happened.  Cool little miracle from the day.  We were looking for a less-active in a trailer park and we found the trailer, but the front door was guarded by 4 little yapping dogs.  So we went to the back door which I didn't think would get answered.  Well we got back to the road and looked over and saw a guy working on his car fixing his wheel bearing.  So my first reaction was that this guy looks a little rough so I didn't want to bother him.  Then I thought well.  Elder Bingham likes doing mechanics so maybe we can help.  I asked Elder Bingham if he would like to help this guy and he looked at me and smiled and said no.  He is a little shy so I knew why he said no.  Well the Spirit was giving this prompting to go and talk with him and I am not going to let Elder Bingham just stay in the comfort zone because there is no growth there.  So I turned and walked over to the guy.  He was a very nice guy.  We offered help, but he didn't need it, which is ok.  We gave him a picture of Jesus.  We then asked if he knew his neighbor, the less-active we were looking for, and he said he did.  He told us that if she wasn't at home, then she was at her daughters place right across the road.  We thanked him and then found the lady we were looking for.  She was not interested in coming back, but the lesson here was that if we had not talked to that man because of prejudgments or our shyness, then we would never had been able to find the less-active lady we were looking for.

Sunday was pretty good.  We got a new Ward Mission Leader which is Bro Richard, so I am excited.  He is awesome.  Although now I am going to be training 2 people because he doesn't know too well what he is doing for this calling and I am the only one with the experience.  The old Ward Mission Leader and myself are going to be helping him out until he gets it down.  I am looking forward to being able to work with him.  He is a convert himself so he might be able to give us some insight on what works and what doesn't.  The rest of the day we did some finding.  Towards the end of the evening, I took Elder Bingham to his first non-LDS church.  We went to the East Bristol Church of Christ.  It was a pretty good service.  It was mainly on the life of John the Baptist.

Well that is all for this week.  This next week is already looking good and I can't wait to see what else it has in store.  One lesson I really learned this week is that I just need to do the work and within time, the fruit from our labors will come forth.  It may be frustrating for a while, but in the end it will be great.  I just need to listen to what the Lord says to do and then do it, no matter what the outcome, even though He already knows what that will be.  I hope you all are having a great first month of the year.  It's good to hear from you guys and the great things you are doing.  I love you all and hope it is a great week.  God bless and I will talk to y'all next week.

Elder Ellison

Humble Pie  -  Tastes Like Pumpkin

New Missionary Trip with these Hooligans

This Parrot Tries to Eat our Shoelaces

Tracting for Dayz!