November 25th--Thankful for Prayers

Dear Friends and Family,

Wow that's crazy to see all the pictures of my friends at Harrison's homecoming! They all look way older! That's awesome that they're all grown up though and moving on with life. 

Maeser Alums attending Harrison's Homecoming:
Nate Marshall, Bruce White, Neal Edgel, CJ Pilling, Hayden Haddock, & Conner Bice

Welcome Home, Elder!

All the power is back up in San Carlos now, but Escalante still has no power and won't till December something is what they're saying. So I'm happy I'm not in that zone anymore. The weather has been pretty fair this week. We had a huge rain storm, but it came at night and it was totally fine. We actually did move houses this week. They put 2 Sisters in branch 1 again, so now there are no Elders there. Since our house was bigger, they made us move to the Sister's house. Their house floods anytime it rains and they were too scared to be bold with the owner and tell her that they were going to move if it wasn't fixed asap, so I did.  I had the roof and a new gutter put on in 2 days, so now it's a way cool house and has an air conditioning. Although, the power is too expensive for it, so we can't use it because we can't afford it. Our missionary support isn't enough. It'd be way nice to use, but... yeah, no money! This week we've had a lot of success! We had a great baptism on Saturday followed by a night full of teaching appointments and it was a great Saturday! I also did some exchanges this week with the District Leader in Calatrava, Elder Saure, and it was great. 

Last Monday all the missionaries from the Escalante Zone came here to San Carlos to email their families and things since we have power here. So we all got together and played basketball. It was super fun! My 3 is a bit off, but it's been fun to play again finally. We haven't been able to play that much the past couple weeks with just our schedule, we've been super busy. Other than that, we then had to pack all our things to move to that new house. Elder Shaffer also got a phone call saying that he would transfer the next day to Escalante zone, which is terrible because they have no power like I said.  There's still some cool people in the zone though, so that's way nice. It's a great zone, just rough areas. The Mabini missionaries aren't having that much success. They've only baptized the investigators that have been investigators since I was there and it's still just a rough place. 

Tuesday we had a lot of transfers and things happening because of the missionaries from Tacloban coming into our mission, so District meeting was moved to Wednesday. On Tuesday we moved in the morning and got our new house ready, then we had to get all of Elder Shaffer's stuff good to go. We taught the Artaba family really quick and they are way cool! The only problem is they commit to church and they read the Book of Mormon and then somehow the mom always gets sick. If the mom doesn't go to church, then nobody goes so it's hard. The daughter is one of our investigators that we actively teach. She's way cool, but the only thing is that she works on Sundays. She also says that since we all worship the same God that it's all good. We teach the restoration and the apostasy and it's just the same still is what she says. So it's hard to get her to understand, but I guess we'll just keep working on it. We then sent Elder Shaffer on his way to Escalante and then we went and tried to teach some more lesson and got super punted. Nobody received us and nobody wanted to listen... go figure. 

Wednesday we had our district meeting with our new district! There's 2 new missionaries from Tacloban in our district (2 sisters). Since Elder Barangay and I are the only one's we are also the district leader, so we're in charge of teaching district meeting too! After district meeting we went to Calatrava and had an exchange. Elder Saure and I came back and worked in our area and we were actually just trying to find a new house for a little bit because our house was flooding and they weren't going to fix it. Elder Anderson told me that I needed to find a new one asap. Anyway, all is well with the house now. Elder Saure and I taught Edward and he was really different. Edward was just doubting everything that we had taught him and he's really just over thinking everything! So we had to really just focus him on prayer and the Book of Mormon. It was a super intense lesson. The spirit was crazy strong and I was just freaking out because I didn't want to lose him. Anyway, we're all good though and he stayed and went to church this week. 

Thursday we exchanged back and then Elder Barangay and I worked so much. We went to Punao and got all the things ready with the Leduna family for the baptism! Jamila wasn't even there though that was the bummer. We waited for her too, we waited for 1 hour and she still never came. Nobody knew where she was so then we just taught Sister Leticia, the mom. She's way awesome. A little slower and shy I think because I'm an American... not really sure why...but still a way awesome investigator. By the time we got back to San Carlos it was dark. We went to Kainggat which is the most sketchy area, but totally fine for men. There's tons of gays and people that just do weird things there at night, but it's fine. We taught some less actives and made sure that they will be coming to church on Sunday and made sure that they're still doing the things that they need to be doing. 

Friday, woke up, did my studies, did all the weekly planning, ate lunch, then I didn't feel too well, so I laid down. After I got up about 30 minutes later, I had a huge fever and was so angry!!!!!!!!! We still went to work though. I didn't care. We went to Stampar, the worst place to go if I was getting sick. Anyway, we did go there and I think I made it worse. After working for 3 hours, I had to go home and lie down. I was just way too hot and I needed some medicine, so I stayed home all day Friday with a fever and I couldn't leave. 

Saturday woke up and everything was okay! I was fine and felt great! We got everything ready for the baptism: went to the church, filled the font, did all that stuff and had a successful day! I'll send pics hopefully but the speed right now is soooo slow, they might not be able to send today so you'll have to wait till next week. 

Sister Leduna's Baptism

Sunday church was great. Elma, one of our long time investigators finally came to church! Her date is Christmas day! Edward was at church and Sister Leduna was at church too. We had an interview in Vallehermoso and on the bus ride there my fever came back... so yeah. Afterwards we came home and I laid down... we weren't able to work. I'm good though now, so MOM don't worry!!!!!!!!!!! :) I'm okay now! haha. I have plenty of medicine and I'm totally fine. Don't text President this time! :) haha.

Sorry my email isn't that fantastic this week, it's been rough and we're still trying to get organized and things with all the new areas and what not in the zone and changes. We getting 2 more elders too and they'll be put on the island so that'll be taken from us and we're going to have to move back to our old house that we were in since 4 of us will live there again. So not sure what this next week holds. 

I love you so much and I miss you all! I still have to email President and there are tons of people waiting for the computers right now. This is the only one up and running as of right now. I miss you so much and looking forward to December 25! haha. Baptism and Skype. Take care! thanks for all the emails! I love you!

Love,

Elder Ellis

November 18th: Life of a Missionary

Maayong Buntag (or I guess it's night time there so... Maayong Gabie),

Thanks for the package!

Kamusta kamo tanan da? I hope everyone is doing great this week. I feel like life is just going super fast all the time here and that everyday is like a hour... I feel anytime I realize what I'm doing I'm sitting at my desk studying. Throughout the day it feels like I'm not even present and when my mind catches up, it's the morning again and I'm reading my Book of Mormon. Hard to explain and probably unexplainable, so I won't try. We haven't had much more clean up from the storm this week. Everything is still good. We're just waiting for the power to get back at full force. It's still on and off and they're not done yet with fixing it all. We had a couple nights this week that we didn't have any power. With no electricity all the time we've been left with restless nights and getting mobbed by mosquito's. When 6:30 comes our eyes were dead and we were so tired, but the only thing to do is get up and go to work. I'm never going to complain though because of what happened to the other missionaries in the Tacloban Mission. I would never wish those things upon anyone. It's been rough for them and the ones who feel like them can move on are now getting assigned in other missions around the Philippines. We have an estimated 15, I think, coming to the Bacolod Mission. The will now be called Bacolod Missionaries, not Tacloban Missionaries. We will bring them into our home and mission like the 1st day of their mission. It's a new start for them and a new beginning of their mission life. I think there will be 2 in my zone, if my calculations are correct. Elder Shaffer is still missing a companion and so he's just been working with us the past week and a half. President said that he'd have one and then I guess something happened. So, we're pretty sure he'll have one tomorrow and we'll have a new missionary from Tacloban in our house. I hope all is well with the Elder. That's only my guess though, so I could be completely wrong. 

San Carlos Zone

Training

Zone Leader meeting

Eating well!

This week we've been working a lot in Elder Shaffer's area. Branch 1 hasn't had a baptism in a long time, so we've been working with him to find him some new investigators. We found him 11, I think in one day. 3 are a crazy religion that believes in going to the room for church and they pray in their heart, then they receive revelation for themselves. That's the whole church service. They don't believe in the Bible, nor that Jesus Christ is the Savior. If you sinned, you need to pay for that, not Jesus Christ. So that's interesting. It's only found in the mountains. I dealt a lot with them in Mabini, but I just never really explained what they actually believe. It's crazy though. We also had a lesson in which we had 14 people present. I'm pretty sure they were more interesting in what 2 huge white guys wearing ties had to say than the actual message itself, so we found out where they all live and will contact them individually and their families. They said they were interesting and would love to learn more. so that was a good experience for sure! After all that happened we walked a little to the foot of the mountain in their area and there was a family that they've been teaching. When we got there the dad, and all his little buddies were drunk with them. There's a wine here that they make from the coconut tree... it's like fermented coconut wine... I don't know how they make it. It's super cheap and people get way hammered on it. So they love to drink that, which is not fun when we're trying to teach the gospel. So we couldn't teach them, just say hi and walk away and continue with out day.

Elder Barangay and I are doing great. We've been a good companionship so far. People really like him and he's pretty good at persuading people to do things actually, which is way useful. He's a cool guy. He was worried about his friend in the Tacloban mission all last week, until we heard that they were all safe and that they were all in Manila. So we were way happy to heart that. It's been good that they can email and let us know that they're safe... or at least we can hear that they are safe from President Lopez. We really good at teaching together. We know when to stop, ask questions, then follow up, we're always on the same page and it really helps. I always have a hard time understand the Filipino brain and thought track, so sometimes, as with all filipino's I get a little angry haha. But I'm working on it. Sometimes, I just think to myself, now why on earth did you do that? But I usually just laugh it off and continue on.

Our training in Bacolod this week was good. President trained us on we can just be better missionaries and what things we need to do in order to baptize more people. I think he just wanted to see us after the storm and all see us still smiling and take a picture. It was nice to see everyone after the storm. We were the furthest north zone that was present at the training and the other zones said it just rained, there wasn't that much of a problem in the other places. So the storm really just skimmed the top of the island. Cadiz, Escalante, and Sagay still have no power at all. So some of them are coming to email here today because it's the only place closest that has power. It's been rough for those 3 zones. I'm not sure about Victorias. It's still north, but I think that it's still okay. Cadiz and Sagay just got destroyed I heard... the power isn't expected to return till late December. We're expected to be back up here in San Carlos in full strength in about 2 or 3 weeks maybe... then we shouldn't have any more problems.

The whole Leduna family was at church yesterday!!!!!!!! Except for the dad, he's never really listened to us, it's okay though because the Mom use to never listen either. Sister Leduna still has some word of wisdom problems, so we will be waiting and helping her with those things before we do her interview. However, Jamela, the daughter was interviewed yesterday and we're good to go! She will be baptized this Saturday at 3pm! We're super happy for her and her decision! The mom will continue to come to church and we'll continue to help her with her word of wisdom. As long as she has that true desire for baptism and the truth, the Lord will help her in those ways so she can be baptized and come to His fold.

We found some new investigators this week. One was a referral from his wife who lives in Bacolod. So we found this guy and talked to him and he committed to come to church like without us even teaching him, I guess he just wanted us to leave or something, because he didn't show up. But we went back after church and he said that we could come teach him on Tuesday. So that's what we'll do. He was a way cool guy so I'm excited, I think he'll actually progress well if we play our cards right. He also seems like he just wants to prove us wrong, I can't tell yet if his questions are just for his knowledge or to see if he can argue with us... we haven't figure it out yet. There's also another two investigators that are good. One is a part member and the other is the part members friend. We met them at the Artaba family, a family that is a returning family from less activity... but the daughter and 2 sons are not yet members. We're working with them and it's slow progression, but we'll continue. They're a cool family. One of their daughters got electrocuted 2 days ago... so she is in pain. haha. 

This week has been different with covering 2 areas, then the training in Bacolod, we feel like we haven't been able to do much in our area this week. So it's sad... but we'll get a full week of work this week so we're super stoked for that. We sick of always traveling and doing random things, like going to Bacolod, or having Elder Shaffer now with us because he doesn't have a comp. I love him to death, but we can't fully focus on our area. I love the work still. It's still hard as usual, but we're trying our best. Poverty is still a huge issue... and in the part of San Carlos that we're assigned, it's the most prominent. The work will still continue. Your prayers would still be the most helpful thing right now. Even just a little insert into your prayers would be nice :) I'm a beggar, so I'm not going to be a chooser. haha! Thanks so much for all you do back home. I hope that everyone is still safe and okay and that no harm is coming upon you. Enjoy the snow, I'll enjoy the rain! I love you all! Be safe!

Amping!~~~~~~~

Elder Ellis

November 11: Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda)

Dear Friends and Family,

Yes. The typhoon was real. For all who don't know, or I'm sure everyone was reading facebook from my family, there was a signal 4 typhoon that hit my island on Friday morning. The power outage started way before that though. On Wednesday night they cut the whole province off of power, all of Negros Occidental. I guess they just didn't want people hurt from current and stuff so I think it was just a precaution. We haven't had power since though. Bacolod has power. Right now we're running the city from a huge generator that puts out tons of gigawatts... so we do have a little power, but not that real power... we don't know if it'll be gone in 5 minutes or tonight... or tomorrow. No clue. So the only thing that happened this week was MLC, the Typhoon, and the Sunday. So I'll just give you the break down of it all. My email might be shorter this week:

Monday we had our P day in Bacolod. I did see a doctore about my back. Long story, nothing they can do, so I will just live with it for the next 10 months + and then when I get home I'll fix it. We then did some shopping in Bacolod for a birthday party of an Elder that lives in Bata. We sleep in Bata anytime that we go to MLC for this Zone Leaders meeting thing. So it was Elder Leng's birthday. He's from Portland. So we had cake, ice cream, and then just some chips and stuff. Not like a party it was more just like a terrible unhealthy dinner. 

Love my new Utah State shirt!  Thanks Court!

Tuesday we had our MLC at the mission home and that was super good. Learned a lot of things. Then we learned that there is something called a super typhoon off in the distance and it's going to hit our island with it's eye. I was like, COOL! So that was that. We were super tired just because we stayed up talking to the other Zone Leaders on Monday night. Then when we got back to San Carlos that night and prepared for our zone meeting on Wednesday morning.

Wednesday in the middle of our zone training meeting I received a text from President saying that everyone needs to return to their areas after the meeting, buy food and store water, then stay at home and prepare the house and prepare everything for this super typhoon. I guess it got bigger that morning and so he wanted us to really prepare. After discussing it with the Canla-on and Vallehermoso Elder's and their apartment situation, we found that it would definitely flood, if the typhoon was as big as it's supposed to be. I called President and he told me to just figure it out myself and my companion. So we decided to just keep them at our house. We have an upstairs so in case of any flooding it would be better and safe because we could still be dry. So after the meeting we all went shopping. Bought tons of rice, the canned meets so that we could keep them with no power, I stored a ton of water, and then they all came over and we had a sleepover. We received a text that was just a forwarded thing about how the power to all of Negros Occidental will be turned off as a precaution. We didn't believe it, until it happened. Then Elder Wilstead beat me in a game of candlelight Chess.

Thursday the storm was supposed to hit. When we woke up there was no clouds, it was hot, and the wind wasn't that strong. We were super confused. President text us all and said not to be confused. It's coming. We were joking that there was no storm, but yeah... Thursday there was no rain, no win, no clouds, we were ready for this storm and it didn't even come. We ordered pizza and did our studies, sat outside and just talked and shared stories, talked about investigators, less actives, our areas, and then about our families. It was a nice Thursday. We went to sleep again with no power or anything. No fans, no water, everything was gone.

Taking down the Mango tree, so it wouldn't hit the house!

Friday morning we woke up and there was a little bit of wind and the grey clouds. The wind in the sky was moving SUPER fast. The cloud were booking it across the sky. So we were like... maybe there is something up there. haha. About 11am the wind and the rain arrived. Elder Wilstead, Elder Pulsipher, Elder Shaffer, and I all sat outside and we had all the blankets and were covered. We were just watching the storm take out the fence across the street, then these people take down that mango tree. We weren't allowed to go outside under orders from President, so we couldn't go help. I wanted to, but we couldn't. The rain came down and the floods came up. The road flooded, but our house was fine. We actually then all went inside, made some lunch, then took a nap because the rain was so soothing on the roof. When we woke up the rain was fading and the wind was a little less strong. No damage was done to our house. The Sister in Branch 2 had their apartment flooded, Vallehermoso's was flooded, and Canla-on A's apartment was flooded. Everyone else is fine. We found that our all yesterday though. The cell tower was out so we had no communication between President and us, but I stood on the balcony, on the railing and was able to shoot a text off, no clue how. God let me do it I guess. Anyway, we had no contact with the rest of our zone. That night we did a lot more front balcony sitting and just talked. 

Needs a shower!

First signs of trouble!  Flooding, fence down, and lots of wind!

Saturday we got a text saying everyone can go home and then do service all day. So all the Elders left our apartment and returned home. We then cleaned our apartment because 3 days of 9 people in a place and can't leave it was nasty. The meat in the freezer smelled cause nobody took it out, there was dirt in the house from who knows what. During the storm the back door opened then slammed shut and broke so the back door is broke and doesn't close. We should be getting a new one soon. The owner knows and came and looked at it. Then we went out and check the damage to the members. We visited all the members that we thought might have problems and things and then found out that they were all safe! Thank goodness! We were super glad to hear that. Then after all morning and mid afternoon of checking up on everyone we went back home to finish cleaning up our house. We then went and bought some more canned foods because we were out or food and rice. Power still wasn't one and no hope of it being on. The night of sleep was the worst.

Sunday morning we had no power and it was super hot. We still went to church and the Lord still blessed us and we had 4 investigators at church Leticia Leduna, Jamala Leduna, Edward Bustamante, and Malu! Leticia and Jamala will have an interview next Sunday for baptism! So we're stoked about that! We then had to go to Calatrava to do a baptismal interview for Elder Saure, the DL in that District. So we did the interview... they don't have any cell signal till now. Ours came back. Then after that we went to Punao and just worked. We taught the Leduna's about L.O.C, WoW, and Sabbath Day, and then they committed to live them. We also taught Edward about the Word of Wisdom and he has no problems and committed to live it. He's a way cool investigator. Probably the most favorite one I've ever taught before. He's super interested and always asked good questions. And always reads his assignment. Last night they kicked on a generator that's from the Ethanol plant here in San Carlos. The city asked to use it and it's wired to the whole city somehow... I don't know how it works. Anyway right now, the city is running off of it.

It's been an insane week. We just prayed all the time that the storm would keep us safe. Nothing too serious happened to us as missionaries here. We aren't sure about the other missionaries in the missions. Cadiz and Sagay cities were the biggest hits though, so we're sure something happened up there, but not sure yet. We might find out this week.

I love you all. Thanks for all the prayers that kept me safe in the storm and the aftermath of all the stuff that's happened. We'll still have some clean up I think this week, but mostly teaching is what I plan on doing. We need some baptisms! Thanks for everything! I miss you so much! Talk to you next week! :)

Love,
Elder Ellis

November 4: Insights from a General Authority

Dear Friends and Family,

I only have a little bit of time today. It's the first Monday of the month so I'm going to Bacolod again for our zone leaders meeting. Even though I was just in Bacolod on Saturdaywith Elder Andersen. That was so awesome. We actually all got to shake his hand which was interesting. I've never shaken an apostles hand before. He's got a super amazing spirit that he brings. Although his message was a little different than I thought it would be. He only spoke for 45 minutes and 30 minutes was talking about his trip to Bohol to visit the church members there. He showed us some pictures and stuff, but I was excited to here HIM speak, but I guess it's okay. It was still amazing to be in his presence. He's a great apostle. One of my favorites actually. And the youngest. 

Monday we did an FHE at People's Park. I showed you pictures awhile ago. I taught a lesson to about 50 people on being on time to church. It didn't really do much, but I still did what I needed to do and to let them know that it's not very spiritual for others to be on time and then all these people keep walking in and stuff. So I just told them how I felt. Sister Lara taught them about temple marriage and directed it most of the S.A's in the branch so it was a good night. We also taught Edward, who's doing super great. He wasn't able to attend church because of a work meeting and we're just praying that his day off is Sunday. If not... there's no way he can be baptized. Unless his shift is in the afternoon. Gaisano is a super churchy kinda place... They have 3 o'clock prayer, but everyone shops there on Sunday. It's funny. haha. He always reads his assignment and now he prays! So he's doing great. 

Tuesday we had our first district meeting! I got a package from mom and dad! A letter from Court and finally mission supplies and pamphlets that we were waiting for! The Anderson's came at the end of our district meeting and sat in a little bit with us. We then had a member work with us, Brother Macmac. He served in the Manila mission and was actually an AP there. We learned tons from him actually and I learned a cool object lesson for word of wisdom which is good because I don't know how to teach it that well, so he showed me a great way to teach it using water and glass and yeah, hard to explain, but still, it was pretty cool. We taught a couple more less actives and then we taught Sister Yaya, or Crisencia. She's doing good and reading. The only bad thing is now her husband won't let her be baptized, so it's not going to happen. We're super sad and down about it actually. Because that was going to happen next week, but now it's not. So we're bummed out... but still, nothing we can do. He was cool to work with. 

Wednesday we did splits with members. I worked with Brother Ko. He's super cool and is like a Filipino Samuari. I don't know how to describe it. He's got the mind set of one and is way cool. Just talking about being able to take care of yourself in any situation. He's a cool guy. He's also got an interesting conversion story that I heard while we were working and it was great! He taught a lot of less actives and we get to combine our numbers with Elder Barangay and his companion for that day, so our numbers got higher. Then we had some awesome lessons with Edward again, he's going great! Like I said before. His wife, who's a member (LA) actually came to church on Sunday. First time in a long time! So it was super awesome to see her at church. So now we know there's going to be progression. We've also run into that part member family that we told you about. None of them actually came to church this Sunday. We didn't have a lot of people at church, we had 2 investigators, but other than that, not a ton were there. Even active members. There's a fiesta here in San Carlos right now, so I guess they were all still sleeping from partying or something. So we're going to teach them this week hopefully. They have 2 kids that aren't baptized yet, so we need to teach one (9 yrs old) and then bring them back to the church. 

Thursday I did exchanges with Elder Wilstead. We went to Sipaway Island, then to Punao, then to President's house to finish off the day with dinner and teaching Yaya. Normally people who are friends to work during exchanges. They either goof off, or just do something fun, or don't work that hard. Not me. Elder Wilstead and I worked all day super hard full on. It was an amazing day! We had some great lessons and the spirit was super strong! We talked about it at the end of the day and we were like, dang, I'm exhausted. After closing our day we talked a little more about our mission and all the things that we've learned and how it's going to help us in the future in our life. It's super awesome. Then we crashed in bed. It's nice to look back on the end of the day and be like, I gave it my all. Some days, even working my hardest, I don't feel like I've accomplished much, but it's nice to know that the Lord is still happy as long as I give it my 110% all the time. 

Elder Wilstead & Ellis on Sipaway Island

Friday we exchanged back and then got super punted the rest of the day. We did teach Edward again! He reads his assignments and committed for baptism! So we're super stoked about it. He always asks the best questions and they're always about what we are going to teach him. Like asking where do we go after we die? Right as we planned to teach the Plan of Salvation. The weirdest one was when he asked about baptism by fire, after reading 2 Nephi 31. haha. He's like, I don't want to burn! So that was funny, never had anyone actually read it in depth like that. Reason number 2345 why he's super awesome! Probably my favorite investigator I've ever taught. We then had to go home and clean the house because all the missionaries were sleeping over on Saturday because we were getting back late on Saturday from Bacolod seeing Elder Andersen. 

Saturday we went to see Elder Andersen. Pictures should be up soon on President's facebook! There were professional pictures done, so I don't know if there's any of me, but maybe there is. It was super awesome to shake hands with him, I think I already said that. We heard from Elder Ardern, Elder Clayton, and Elder Echohawk, they were super awesome actually. I love Elder Clayton. He's super just straight forward with everything. All the Filipino's were like oh crap, all this English is killing me! But it was super awesome actually. It was a spiritual Saturday for sure! Then we came home, that was our whole day!  I learned that everyone deserves to hear the gospel. We need to talk to everyone and give them that chance to accept it. That, and he was like, it's great to baptize 9 year olds who were baptized at 8, but we really to establish the church. I was like THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!! It's sort of a mission joke. 

Our zone going to Bacolod

Sunday we had Sister Leduna (Leticia) and Jamela at church. They're the family of Sherwin. That's 2 weeks in a row that they've come to church. They're super cool! They will be baptized on the 23rd of this month! Both of them. It's super awesome that they've been coming to church now. Before they wanted nothing to do with the church, now it's awesome. We also had to go to Canla-on to do an interview for baptism there, so they will have one this week again. They do have a lot of baptisms up there. I'm proud of them. Elder Wilstead's a good leader and a good district leader right now. Former Zone Leader so he really knows what he's doing. 

Well, that's pretty much my week. It was a super good week and the spirit was super strong this week and it was fantastic. Elder Andersen says that there are more packages waiting for me in Bacolod so maybe I'll get #2 this week! haha. Thanks for taking care of me everyone! It's been super good and I'm really enjoying and having a spiritual time here in San Carlos. I really love San Carlos. It's been the best part of my mission so far. I'm way more happy and I love the people, the branch, and the area and it's just been the best blessing ever! I miss you all back home and thanks so much for the prayers! I love you!

Love,

Elder Ellis