Dear Family and Friends,

 

Okay so time for that weekly letter I suppose.  Hmm I really don't know what to say.  There's a lot of stuff happening.  We usually visit about three people a day and I've had some bad experiences, and some good.

I've met a lot of cool families, just yesterday we were visiting an investigator called Brent, he has cancer and he's really struggling with it.  We don't teach him much because he's in a really tough situation with God right now.  He feels like God has forsaken him and he still has faith in God, but he's just so mad because he's been struggling with the cancer and a recent divorce for so long.  I told him about Aunt Kim and how she died of cancer and it was cool cause then he started to open up to me and connect a little better.  We really just try to fellowship him and stay friends, we might go to Liberty Jail together soon which will be really cool.

One of our investigators got in an accident recently, she had to cancel dinner with us and go to work, and our her way she crashed on a Vesta.  She's not sure what really happened but we went to her later at 10 PM and gave her a blessing.  It was really cool because after we did that, she said I feel better already.  She also recognized that Satan is after her.  She said that he's trying his hardest to not let her change her life, but she said she's not going to give in this time.  I think she might be our first baptism, she's definitely ready, and we also have a few other investigators that are ready.

The other night we taught a guy named Doug, he hasn't visited from Missionaries since 2008 but we managed to just pop up on his door at the right time and he let us in.  We taught him the Plan of Salvation, he's really been struggling lately because his mother had suddenly died, so we taught him the Plan of Salvation to help him get through that struggle.  He said that when the missionaries taught him back in 2008 he was struggling with life, and then we showed up again when he was struggling again.  He's really curious about religion and knows so many different theories, but it sounded like what we were teaching him was completely new even though he had received the lessons already before.

Other than these few investigators, we visit a lot of less active families, a lot of them are really struggling with things and we're trying to get them back at Church.  One family we met was crazy though, the husband had invited us to kinda help his kid's learn about the Church so that they could have that in their life.  They were really nice but then the wife started going on about a bunch of stuff.  She basically said the Church was just for power hungry men and then started going on about Bishops who had affairs and stuff, and how the Church just raises girls to be submissive and stay home.  It was really sad because of how warped her view on the Church was, especially because the Church isn't like that at all, but because of her family she had such a negative view on everything.

I had a few more cool experiences, but for lack of time I'll probably start to wrap this letter up.  Kansas is super hot, we had the car last week, but we get to ride our bikes this week.  My bike is way nice (it was like 700 dollars geez.) but it's definitely going to have to be good if it's going to last for two years.  The people here are pretty nice, but some people are just rude.  People scream at you from their cars and etc.  Doors slammed in my face and all that nice stuff.  But we don't tract from door to door much anymore.  The Church is really trying to have missionaries stray away from that and instead they're trying to get you to have member referrals and stuff because that's really the best way to find new members because they already have friends in the Church and have that fellowship.

In order to drive cars here we have to pass a test which is called Becoming a Level 5 Teacher, we have to memorize points of each lesson and a scripture with each point and then pass it off.  I've been trying to do that because I want to drive a car asap.  My companion is District Leader though so its nice because I just have to pass it off to him.

Anyways, yeah go ahead and send my shoes Mom, send whatever else you want, It's pretty boring around here so I'm totally okay with random toys and stuff.  (I actually kind of want to start Yo-Yo'ing and get good at it on my p-days so you should totally buy me a Butterfly Yo-Yo and like a guide on Yo-Yo'ing, I'm totally serious okay?)  Anyways logo shirts are okay which is why I told you to send me some of my old shirts, but yeah.  I can't really think of anything else I need from home.

I guess I'll wrap this letter up now, things are pretty good here, I'm sorry I can't write more but the Library is way busy today so yeah.  Love you lots Family & Friends, stay well. 

 

Sincerely Elder Nathaniel Ellis