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!

The Greenie Life 1-9-17

So we had transfers and I am going to be training another new missionary.  My new companion is Elder Bingham and he is from Hurricane, Utah.  He is a pretty cool kid.  He likes sports and played football in high school.  He also wants to be a mechanic for work.  He’s a little shy until he is comfortable around you and then he is super talkative, but I am hoping to help him be able to be more comfortable talking to new people like I had too.  So this week has had a few ups and downs.

Monday we got the transfer calls.  We didn't do too much that day because none of the other missionaries were able to come and hang out.  So we were at the church all day just by ourselves.

Tuesday we went to the Richard's and it was raining a little so we helped them clean up their Christmas decorations.  We then went over to Miss Rush's so Elder Anderson could say goodbye.  Not too much happened the rest of the day.

Wednesday I got my new greenie, Elder Bingham.  When we got back from our 2 hour drive, we went out to do some finding.  We stopped in at a less-active's home because no one had seen her in about 4 years.  We didn't have an address until a sister missionary that knew her before she moved here gave us her info.  So that was awesome.  She isn't interested in coming back, but we might be meeting with her boyfriend at some point to explain some of our beliefs.  We then went tracting for a little bit.  We got some rejections, which are always fun.  We then went to the Book of Mormon study class.

Thursday was my dad's birthday so Happy Birthday to him.  I shall keep his age confidential.  We had District Meeting and after that we went and did some tracting.  We had some snow flurries, but nothing major.  We didn't have much success during tracting. Not too many people wanted to talk to us.

Friday we had weekly planning.  We did a lot of “dropping” in our teaching pool.  A few of the people we had are not interested at all, but just like the visits.  It snowed for most of the day, but didn't stick until night.  We went out with a young man from the ward and we only had one lesson with him.  He leaves on his mission in about 2 weeks so we are trying to help him as much as possible until he leaves.  After our time with him, we went tracting again.  We met some cool people, but also a couple stubborn ones.  One lady we talked to wasn't interested, but we were able to serve her by getting her mail for her. Then another old lady told us we should change our title as "Elder" because no one around here has used that in a few years.  Another lady we met told us we believed in a different Jesus.  I asked her what one she believes in.  She told us and I said that we believed in the same one as her and she told me no we don't.  I said yes we did, I think I would know.  Then we tried to leave by giving her a picture of Jesus and she went off on how that isn't what He looks like.  I guess she has seen him or something.  Then she finally said she wasn't interested.  We finished that street and went to another one.  The first lady we talked to told us who her neighbors were and the one across the street she said was Jewish so we went and knocked.  I have never talked with Jewish people before.  They opened the door and said "Mormons!"  They let us right in and we just talked with them and their Korean exchange student for about an hour.  The husband was Jewish and so we got to learn a little bit about them, which was cool.  They were super nice people and we even got to learn about Korea too.  They were not interested, but said that they always welcome us in and told us if we ever needed something to call them up and ask.  They had offered to feed us dinner too, but we politely declined.  It was a good way to end the day.

Saturday it had snowed a couple inches overnight so the car was parked for the day which made a damper in our plans.  By lunch though we received word that we could use the car now so we went off to Miss Rush's to introduce Elder Bingham.  We are working on dropping her because she is not interested in the church, just enjoys the visits.  It is going to be really hard because of the relationship she has with the missionaries.  She has been meeting with them for 4 years and she does so many nice things for us.  We are going to be easing off of our visits over time.  After that we just went tracting again.  We are trying to build up our teaching pool after we dropped so many people during weekly planning.  So lots of finding for us and so far not too much is coming from it.  Having the cold doesn't help because it gives them an excuse to not stay at the door long and talk with us.

Sunday we had church and because of the snow, not too many people were able to make it.  Today was like the coldest day ever.  It had gotten close to 0 overnight and this morning when we left for church it was 10 degrees.  Luckily it is supposed to be in the 60s by Thursday so I'm looking forward to that.  We went tracting some more and froze our faces off.  It got to the point where my lips became numb so I started talking and smiling a little funny.  That was about it for us.

So from the start of this new year, I have decided to end my journal entries with a "Miracle of the Day."  It has become really interesting as some of the days don't seem to have much happen, but I am noticing little things now that I wouldn’t normally think would be miracles.  This is also true when I might be writing down things that I am grateful for.  It definitely is something that helps me see the Lord's hand in each and every day.  So I hope you all are having a great new year so far and are staying strong to your resolutions you made.  Keep up with it.  You can do it.  Don't let anyone tell you that you can't.  You are the creative force of your life.  I leave you guys with these little thoughts I had this week and I hope y'all have a great week.

Elder Ellison

Shut Down the Town!     3 inches Snow.

Welcome 2017! 1-2-17

Wow the new year has just creeped up on us so fast.  To finish off the year we had a pretty good week even though we had the holidays.  Also, another transfer has come and gone and we found out the results this morning.  I am staying in Bristol, still District Leader, and will be training again.  I will now have trained 3 missionaries.  Elder Anderson is leaving to another area. So anyways, this was our week.

Monday we had P-day with everyone in our District because one of the Sisters is going home and it was her last P-day so we partied.  We went bowling and played games at the church.

Tuesday it was raining so we couldn't go work on the farm.  We had a lot of miles left for the rest of the month so we went further out and did some finding.  We met a man named Bill who was married to a deceased member.  We talked with him for a while and we helped answer some of his questions.  He likes having proof.  He does have a belief in God, but he has a hard time believing things in the scriptures because it was so long ago.  It was a great lesson and I think we helped his faith grow just a little bit more and some things started to make sense for him.  The cool part was that we would not have had that lesson if we had not continued to look for his home.  It didn't have an address on it and we were about to give up and just move on to the next person, but we decided we would try a couple homes nearby and see if we could find it.  One home directed us to him.  I'm so glad we didn't give up on looking for him.

Wednesday we saw Miss Rush and then we had to run over to a friend of a member and give her a blessing.  It was an awesome experience and we offered our help.  We also said if she ever just wants to talk and ask questions, we would be more than happy to help her out.  We then went over to a member’s home for the rest of the night and helped paint their bathroom.

Thursday we had our last District Meeting of the transfer.  Afterwards we had exchanges with the Marion Elders.  I was with Elder Hopkins. He has been out about 2 months less than me.  We did a lot of drop-in visits to try and find people.  At the end of the night we had a lesson with some less-actives that Elder Hopkins taught before.  He started his mission here in Bristol so he knew a lot of people that we tried to see.  He even suggested a couple people we can try and see again.

Friday we switched back and then did weekly planning.  Then that afternoon we had a very successful finding day.  We had a few lessons with some investigators and less-actives throughout the day.  Then at the end of the day we stopped by to try and find a less-active and he wasn't home because he is a trucker.  We actually talked with him for a couple minutes over Skype -haha.  He told us that he wanted us to teach his wife.  She had been taught a couple years ago, but then the missionaries just stopped coming by.  So we talked with her for a bit.  She is from Columbia.  She has lived here for 4 years so her English is still in progress, but it is much better than it was the last time missionaries were there.  We set up to see her again this next week.

Saturday we did some service for a member.  While we were feeding the chickens we got to see the roosters do some dominance fighting.  It was pretty entertaining, but we also have to be careful because they sometimes try and attack us too.  Later we saw Miss Rush.  Then we had to end proselyting early that evening.  We hung out with the other missionaries because no one invited any of us over to celebrate New Year’s Eve.

Sunday our church now starts earlier and then our whole day just fell through so we just did some finding.

Well as it is the start of a new year and it is the time when everyone makes new goals or resolutions, I would like to share with you 2 quotes that will help hopefully.  These are quotes that I actually heard this last week.  So the first is, "To reach a goal you have never before attained, you must do things you have never before done."  This is so true.  Sometimes we may have to do some hard things in order to reach our end vision or goal.  Now to help us reach our goals, we need help from God.  So this second quote has to deal with help from Him to achieve our goals, "Pray like everything relies on the Lord. Work like everything relies on YOU."  We can always pray and ask for help, but nothing will happen unless we put forth our own effort.  God will provide us with the situations to achieve our goals and with those situations we are given, we need to make the choice to act upon them, even when it might be hard or our first time and we are scared.  Always remember that fear is a product of the devil and is not from God.  Always remember as well this from Mark 5:36, "Be not afraid, only believe."  I hope that something from this will help one of us achieve a goal we have set this year.  I close in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Ellison

New Year's Eve Facials  -  I don't really get the point of them.

The Richard's Farm

District Funeral - She's Going Home

I Swear I Am NOT Asleep!

Bristol Speedway At Night

Merry Christmas! 12-26-16

Merry Christmas to everyone!  I hope it was a good one and full of love and happiness.  What a blessing it is for us to get to have a chance to specifically stop and celebrate the birth of our Savior.  We had a fairly good week even if it wasn't as eventful as most weeks.

Monday we just played some board games and had a little fun.  Not too much happened.

Tuesday we worked at the Richard's farm as usual.  We are taking down their tomato plants and pulling starts out of the ground so they can be ready to re-till next year.  Later we had planned to go tracting and as we started, we talked with a guy for an hour and a half.  We gave him a Light the World pass along card and then that led into a huge discussion about the gospel.  As we shared some of our beliefs with him, he didn't agree and turned more into bashing on those beliefs.  He told us to get rid of the Book of Mormon because we didn’t need it.  Then he shared a great personal story that I thought showed why we need it, but he didn't make the connection.  He also tried to tell us that we were told erroneously that the Bible talks about the Book of Mormon and wouldn't believe us when we said that we found that out in our own study.  He also wouldn't believe that we had found the gospel was true for ourselves, but that we had basically been brainwashed and told to believe it.  He said that we needed to pray and find out for ourselves, which we tried to explain that we already have.  He told us that we had been deceived.  By the end of this conversation, I was a little frustrated and starting to get mad.  I was almost ready to walk away without another word.  Needless to say, we ended the conversation and moved on.  We later had a lesson with an old guy in his 80’s that was super nice.  He wasn't interested in learning, just liked talking to us.  He was a funny guy and we definitely needed that.

Wednesday we drove down to Morristown, TN to have a Christmas Conference with our Zone and the Cumberland Zone.  It was super fun.  We were told the Nativity story, but with extra facts we didn't know and it helped us get a new perspective on it.  We had some lunch and then played dodgeball.  That was super fun!  I got nailed right in the mouth and boy, did my face tingle for a little bit after that one!  After that we got to watch Star Wars 7: The Force Awakens and it was pretty good.  I'm glad our Mission President chose that one instead of some cartoon.  When it was over, we helped clean up and traveled back to our areas.  We had about a 2 hour drive.

Thursday we did a lot of finding.  That was most of our day.  We even handed out 40 Light the World pass along cards.  In total we handed out 109 cards for the week.  Then in the evening, we drove to the Marion area so that I could interview one of their investigators, a 14 yr. old girl, for baptism.  She got baptized on Christmas Eve.

Friday we did some weekly planning.  Then we had a lesson with a less-active and we shared the Light the World video.  We did some finding and then had a lesson with a guy named Travis.  He is working on becoming a member of the church.

Saturday we did some service for a member and they took us to lunch afterwards.  It was raining all day, but luckily it was just misty.  We did some finding until we couldn't proselyte anymore for the evening.  We went over to the Filetti's home and had dinner with them.  As one of their traditions, they have a few different canned foods to try.  I tried them all which was; oyster, calamari, squid, and sardines in hot sauce.  All of which were not too bad.  We had some fun for the rest of the evening and then had a spiritual thought.  The dad reads the Nativity and combines both sides of the Bible and Book of Mormon - what was going on in both places at the time of the birth of Christ.

Sunday was Christmas so we opened some gifts in the morning and then went to church.  This whole day was almost exactly the same as last Christmas.  Rainy in the morning, then warm, but overcast for the rest of the day.  It got up to 60 degrees, which I loved.  Afterwards we had a lesson with our investigator David.  After that we had some fun and dinner with a few member families.  Then we got to do the fun part of Christmas:  We Skyped our families.  It was really fun!  My grandma was there too, which was cool.  We had lots of good laughs.

Well, that has been it from my end.  I wish you all a happy New Year. I also wish you good luck on making and keeping your resolutions.  If anything, try to actually accomplish one of them and let it be towards doing good in the world.  Until next time.

Elder Ellison

Investigator David

Christmas Eve With This Awesome Family

Christmas morning - opening gifts half asleep

Skyping Home

TKM Sweatshirts - A Gift From Pres. & Sis. Griffin

Feeling Like Riccardi 12-19-16

So I know that not everyone will understand my title, but there is a letter that was written by guy who was Riccardi's missionary companion back in the 90s.  He tells all about his experiences and how bold he was.  You will just have to read the Riccardi Letter to understand it.  Also, this email will be a little shorter than the others because P-day was on Wednesday this week.

Wednesday we went and spent P-day with a bunch of other missionaries and went to a jump park.  It was a pretty cool place.  Then we just hung out at the church.

Thursday we did a lot of finding and had a couple lessons with some new people.  It was freezing cold too.

Friday we did some weekly planning.  Then we went and helped a manager at Chick-fil-a move apartments.  He is a pretty cool guy and he knows a few members of the church that got us in contact with him.  Afterwards we had dinner and games at a member’s home with another part-member family.

Saturday we met with Miss Rush and then we went to a YSA activity we were invited to.  We were able to talk to a non-member who was there and share a little bit about our church with him.

Sunday we had church. Then we went and had a lesson with David about tithing and fast offerings.  Ok so now for the RIccardi moment.  Late last night we got a referral and so we called him after church and set up an appointment for later that afternoon.  We went over and met this guy.  He told us he wanted to join the church because his girlfriend said she was going to be married in the temple. During our conversation, we realized that may be the only reason why he was interested instead of actually wanting to learn if this was true.  He started to tell us that we were wrong and some of our answers to his questions, which were spot-on, were not good enough for him.  He eventually ended up bashing on our church and how we are no different than any other church.  In the end, I was the most bold I probably have ever been and told him something I have never told anyone before.  I told him that he was not ready for the full, restored gospel.  He would be at some point, just now he wasn't and that is ok.  We would not be back to see him again, but invited him to continue to pray, study, and search.  I said it very boldly, but as polite as I could.  He told me that if I did that to anyone else, I would get cussed out.  He told us that his door is always open and that he thought we would be back next week to learn “truth.”  I told him that we would not, but we appreciated his time and questions.

I would just like to share my testimony that has continually grown through much study and prayer.  I do know that this is the full and true gospel that has been restored to the earth in this modern day.   Throughout the world there are pieces of the gospel.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has all of the pieces put together.  We have a prophet on the earth that leads us today.  His name is Thomas S. Monson.  This is Jesus Christ's church.  He leads it.  The Book of Mormon has been brought forth to help us understand the teachings in the Bible even better.  It is a second witness and teaches that Christ is our Savior.  We have been taught all of the sacred ordinances that can bless us and help us return to our Heavenly Father.  I have come to know these things to be true though my own study and then asked the One who knows all.  My answer to that prayer came through a warm, good feeling of the Holy Ghost.  I cannot deny the answer that I knew I had received.  Now I am out here to help others come to know these things to be true for themselves.  I pray the Lord will show these people to me and if I find those who are not ready yet, then I will try to help them continue on their journey towards God.   God has a plan for all of us.  It is a perfect plan.  We need never fear if we are to have faith in God.  Put Him on your team and trust Him and you will never fail because He never fails.  I leave you with these things in the name of our Beloved Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Ellison

P.S. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas.

The Bird Likes Me

Random Mural

Angry Face

The First Flurries 12-14-16

This email will be a little longer due to the extra days because of our Zone Conference.  This week was full of snow, exchanges, and learning. 

Monday we just hung out with the other missionaries in our District.  We played board games and sports. 

Tuesday was a great day.  We started out working at the Richard's farm.  We helped clean out some of their storage sheds because it was raining.  Later we did a bunch of finding.  We were looking for this one less-active in a trailer park, but they had moved a while ago.  The guy who lives there now is named David.  We talked with him for a while and had a great conversation.  He had a great story of how God has helped him in his life recently.  He got emotional in front of us too.  We asked him if we could come back and share a message that will bring him closer to his Heavenly Father and he said we could.  Later we met a less-active who started out a little rude then changed.  She became very nice and even said she wanted to come back to church.  She called us Sunday morning saying she still wanted to come, but was super sick, which was a bummer.  We then met with one of our investigators.  We first went in planning to teach the Restoration, but as we started, I asked how he has seen God's hand in his life?  His answer took the whole lesson in a different direction and we learned so much more about him.  Now we can better teach to his needs. Today was again, a great day.

Wednesday we met with a guy named Travis.  We are trying to encourage him to come to church.  We then met with Miss Rush and had a good gospel discussion with her.  Her only thing is that she doesn't want to find out if these things are true yet - so we are not too sure what to do to help her. Later that evening we had Book of Mormon class.

Thursday we had District Meeting.  The Zone Leaders came and we had exchanges afterwards.  I went to Johnson City with Elder Simmonson.  He is from Grace, ID.  He has been out just a couple weeks more than me.  We did some finding and then had a lesson with one of their investigators.  We also helped one of their neighbors put up her Christmas lights.  It didn't look too bad at night.

Friday morning we were in studies, and I looked out the window and I saw these huge flakes of snow falling from the sky.  It didn't last too long and nothing stayed on the ground.  That morning we went tracting and it was really cold and windy.  There were really little flakes of snow too.  So later we exchanged back and we did some more finding until we had to do weekly planning. That night we had a lesson with an investigator and her less-active husband.  It was really frustrating for both Elder Anderson and I - we ended up dropping them since they don’t really seem interested in learning right now. 

Saturday we saved the lives of some chickens and ducks.  We went to a member’s home in the morning to do service and as we went to let out their animals, a light had fallen onto a bag of shredded wood and it started to burn.  When we opened the door, it was extremely smokey.  We are lucky we got there before the animals became rotisserie chicken and roast duck.  That afternoon we went out with Tyler who is a senior in high school.  We saw an investigator named Don and had a good lesson on the Spirit.  We saw a few other people that afternoon.  That night we had the ward Christmas party.  We had a couple investigators show up, which was awesome.  We had more people there than we do for Sacrament meeting.  Hopefully those people that don't normally come to church will start coming. 

Sunday we met with David and they fed us dinner.  We shared the Bearing our Burdens Mormon Message.  That was about it for our day.

Monday was an awesome day.  We got to learn from Elder Neilson of the 70 who is one of the heads of the Missionary Department.  I learned some really awesome things from him, his wife, and President Griffin.  First was President Griffin.  He took the allegory of the vineyard in Jacob 5 and made it into a parable and compared it to us and how the Lord sends us to where we need to be and who we need to be with for a specific reason.  We also are sent there at specific times or else our experiences would be completely different.  We are there at those specific times because it will be something we need to learn at that point in our life and service.  Then Sister Neilson talked about companions and how we can get along with them better.  It also is helping us learn how to spend the rest of our life with our Eternal Companions.  Elder Neilson first talked about how we are assigned to labor.  When choosing someone's mission call, one of the Apostles will pray and receive revelation on it.  Sometimes we are assigned to the mission, but he said that sometimes we are assigned to the Mission President and his wife.  For me I think that maybe I was sent to the Nashville mission for some specific reasons and then when the Apostle re-prayed over my assignment to switch Missions, I was assigned to the Griffins.  Still trying to work that one out.  He also taught us that our job as missionaries is to help connect people to Heaven, to help them receive revelation on their own through the scriptures, prayer, and coming to church.  He said that if he was to give us another name, it would be Inviters.  He told us that if he was to look up what words we used the most on our mission, one of them should be "will you...?"  He taught us on what we can do for finding and we were able to figure out some of the most effective ways to find people to teach.  Another thing I learned was that this gospel is a forward-looking gospel.  God doesn't reflect back on past mistakes and sins and nether should we.  The thing that stuck with me the most though was his comment about fear and faith.  He told a story about an Elder in his mission when he was serving in Finland and he told us that when fear is present, faith is gone, but when faith in Jesus Christ is present, fear can never exist.  That got me pumped and wanting to exercise more faith.  Fear only comes from the adversary and the only way to overcome it is to have faith that the Lord will help you.  As my dad would say, "F.E.A.R. is False Evidence Appearing Real."  So that was about the extent of our meeting and so it was really cool to learn all of these awesome things and be re-energized and uplifted in the work.

Tuesday we went to the Richard's farm again.  Later we did some finding and handed out a ton of Light the World pass along cards; even when it was dark, rainy, and cold. 

So what has become of the world today in the holidays?  We all can see that everything is now more commercialized and we are forgetting the true meaning behind what we are celebrating.  If we break down Christmas, we get Christ and mas.  Mas in Spanish means more and so we need more Christ.  That is partly why I think the church came out with this great service program entitled Light the World.  We are all focused on getting other people gifts which is good, but do we remember to give our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ a gift?  When we serve others, we also serve God.  Serving others can be the gift we give to Him and to show our love.  It doesn't have to be anything big or complex.  Simplicity is key and even God delights in plainness.  It doesn't matter who it is either, the thing to remember is to just do it.  Show forth the Light of Christ within you and then we will have more Christ, not just during this time of the year, but always.  These things I leave with you in the name of He whose birth we celebrate now, Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Ellison

District & Zone Leaders 

NASCAR Bristol Speedway

Miss Rush's Dog

McKay Opening His Christmas Package Titled "Joy To The World, Nanaimo Bars Have Come"