Elder Blake Ellis' Mission Life: Conference at the MTC

Proud to be a Missionary!

Dear Family

Hey guys! How is everything going? This week was pretty fantastic. So many things went on and so many new experiences.

Did everybody like conference? I loved it! Can you believe the new missionary age? Is that just crazy!!! Ashlyn can pretty much go right out of High School right? Well, I guess a little bit of time, but that's totally amazing. The MTC started cheering and stuff, it was pretty wild. Arizona is also going to have a lot of temples by the time they're done announcing everything.

Elder Evans is an amazing companion. I'm so glad I have him, and I love him! We're super similar in every way and so we get along SUPER well. I just want to share an experience we had teaching our investigator this week:

We're teaching this woman named Geneva. She was actually our teacher, but you here we pretend they're real investigators. So we're about to teach her and right before we do we decide to say a prayer. After we prayed we found that we prepared the wrong lesson and that we should teach her about Eternal Families and how we can be with our families forever. So we did. She was SOO happy and we found the Family Proclamation in Hiligaynon on LDS.org, and printed it off and challenged her to read it. She was so excited and so happy about our message. We go back 2 days later for another lesson and a strange woman answers the door. We said that we were looking for Geneva. The lady said... "There has been a terrible accident, Geneva has died during child birth." She was 9 months pregnant. Elder Evans and I were like, WHAT!? And we were so sad. We went back to class and the teacher (who was playing Geneva) said to us that this was a real story. It happened to her on her mission while she was in Bacolod. She then said that Elder Evans and I were exactly correct on what to teach her. And we had no idea. We didn't know that she NEEDED that lesson that we taught her, we just felt prompted that's that what we should teach. We came to the conclusion that sometimes you only get to teach someone one time. What if you get transferred, what if they move, what about a terrible accident. I and my companion realized that this work is real. Every single bit of it. We need to teach with the spirit. And ALWAYS be in-tuned to it.

Elder Evans & Elder Ellis

I honestly love being a missionary. Saturday session of conference honestly made me want to just get out of the MTC and get to the Philippines! I love the Philippines so much!!!! I'm so happy and excited to serve! It's going to be an amazing experience.

I know that this church is the simbahan matuod sang Diyos. (True church of God). I love being a missionary. I'm almost to Alma right now in my scriptures, this week has been a little different with conference and things. Ang Libro ni Mormon nga and Pulong sang Diyos. (The Book of Mormon is the word of God). It really is and we can seek divine revelation from it. I hope that everyone is doing well at home. How's the dog by the way?

Mom, my ADD is doing okay. I have to just walk around sometimes and my legs start going nuts, but it's been better than I thought it'd be. Sitting in class for 3 hour segments isn't fun, but you know what? I'm learning sooooo much! I'm learning how to be a man and how to help others. I'm not here for me. I'm here for the Filipinos.

Another thing I learned this week is that if we don't serve as a missionary and answer the call of duty, the people that were set out for us won't be able to hear the gospel when they could've and it's going to be all our fault! There salvation could've been helped by us! And because we didn't answer the call, it's on our head. Kind of scared me! But hey, I'm here right? So why should I be scared. With the Lord all things are possible. I love you guys and I miss y'all sooooo much. It's super fun to get letters from you. This week, those cookies were great!, and thanks for the food you guys sent me. Courtney also sent me some snacks, so I've got TONS! Thanks :) I love you guys. Keep reading your scriptures and praying for all the missionaries around the world. We need all the prayers that we can get. This work is so fun. Love y'all and stay strong :)

Love,

Elder D. Blakeman Ellis