Short...

Sorry this is going to be a really short e-mail.
Computers hate us today, and we've had a long day of trying to find a place with working internet.
I'm doing pretty well, just trying to get used to the 'new' area. and the 'new' companion.
we had a baptism this past week. I found him when i was here last, but didn't get the chance to teach him.
I was just the book ends.
well... i love you
love, Elder Ellis

Russian Holiday Quarantine...

Hello family!
It was good to get to talk to you all on Saturday! (except Kortney, Ben, Kennady, Clark, and Owen.) And I hope you all enjoyed your fun time canoeing. I’m jealous. But, I’m glad that I got to delay you for a little while :P
Happy Mothers Day again. I love you. You’re my favorite mother!
It’s been a crazy (and somewhat fun… FUN? Wait… I thought men couldn’t have fun….) couple of weeks.
Back in Kazan we had branch picnic for the 1st of May… it’s a holiday apparently. Good time filled different team competitions. My team won every game. Much to the dismay of Elder wood who was on the other team. I didn’t even have to argue over the rules… we just simply dominated. 2 of our investigators showed up and had a good time with all the members. I can tell I’ll be missed in kazan. The man we baptized said he’ll keep praying that I get sent back there by the end of the mission, I encouraged him to pray on! Our newly found investigator (who is golden) also said she would miss me and even tried to give me a hug. She hasn’t read her little white handbook of missionary rules. I even got a gift from another member apon leaving. Hand knit house slippers. Pretty neat.
And well, now I’m back here in Novo-k. the members were happy to see me again. Especially Pasha, Mesha, and their mother and bobooshka. ( we baptized masha in February… 13 old boy. Their whole family baptized one by one in the fall/winter)
My new companion is Elder Maximov and I think we fit well together. I don’t intend this cycle to be the easiest, but I do think I will enjoy it. I’m starting to feel some of the responsibilities of being a leader now… deep breath.
One particularly exciting thing. I finished the Book of Mormon again on Saturday, and as we often should, put Moroni’s promise to the test (If you read the Book of Mormon, and ask God having Faith in Christ, a Sincere heart, and real intent then He will answer your prayer through the Holy Ghost… your thoughts and your feelings.) It’s always good to test the things that the scriptures say so that we can receive a personal testimony of their validity. So Saturday I prayed. And waited. Yesterday was another Russian holiday (day of freedom) and since there are lots of crazies on drunks on this holiday we were invited to the “Samara Zone Mini Conference / Russian Holiday Quarantine.” There we watched the Joseph Smith Film, President and Sister Sartori talked to us, and we had a testimony meeting. And somewhere in that 3 hours… I got my answer. I know the Book of Mormon is true. Undoubtedly. It is the Word of God. I knew it before, and I’ve gotten my answer before, But I am greatful for a loving Heavenly Father who will answer my prayers each and everytime I ask. I am greatful for the Book of Mormon and how it has helped me to become who I am today, and also help me realize the potential my Heavenly Father sees in me. I am greatful that through it I have gained a stronger testimony of my Savior Jesus Christ and his loving sacrifice for me. And I am greatful that I have been blessed with all the right tools (family, leaders, scriptures… etc.) that have helped me to find that faith for myself.
It is true. I do not doubt it. I hope I can help others to find this peace and happiness that I have.
Well, Family… I love you!
Love, Elder Ellis

So Long, Farewell to you my friend...

Well, Kazan was good while it lasted.
I'm getting transferred. Same song second verse... I’m going back to novoquibeshevsk! I'll even have another Ukrainian Companion. Elder Maxzimov. I actually was in the MTC with him and flew out with him (part way). I'm quite sad to leave this wonderful city... but I'm glad i can see the members in Novo-k once again. It's not a big change going back to the worst apartment in the mission.... I’ve been in the 2nd worse for the last cycle. One day i'll go to a nice apartment with fully functioning plumbing... and i doubt I’ll know what to do!
I'm also going to be a district leader now. At first i heard that i would be a district leader and i thought "easy peasy" as i knew the Novo-K district only consisted of my companionship... but they combined our district with the bezimonkski district. So i have the zone leaders and the sisters in the district. Should be fun. The sisters will be in my old apartment... I hope they like cat pictures with creepy human heads... and colorful duck tape toilet seats....
I'm writing rather early this morning as we are going to a picnic and then will be heading to see a few sights today before i have to leave the best city in the mission. Have to see it off in a good way.
This weekend we also had a baptism. My good old Muslim buddy got baptized! It was a wonderful baptism! He’s had a baptism set up before... but he didn't show. That was about 6 months ago. But we got him there. Although when we came out of a meeting with president Sartori a little bit late we were freaking out that he wasn't there yet! so we went out on the street to call him (bad reception in the branch building) and he was just waiting for his friend to show up. it was a scare. But he's now baptized, confirmed, and entitled to all the wonderful blessings that come from being a member of the church and having the gift of the Holy Ghost to help comfort and guide him. Definitely a good week. I'll have to write something about it in my favorite cat calendar :D
We also taught one investigator yesterday that is quite golden. We finished teaching about the restoration and asked her to pray to receive an answer for herself that the Book of Mormon is true, and she said "I don't think I need to Pray for an answer... I already believe it's true. I just feel it when i read the words" the member on the lesson said "well, still you can't just take the missionaries words for it, we're all just people we could be lying" to which she replied "I don't think Missionaries would lie" well..... we try not too.
Well i'm going to wrap this up for now. That's crazy weather you've been having. its just been sunny and warm here in Kazan. We’re allowed to work without suit coats already. haven't yet though.
Have you built your arks? Or at least repented?
love,
Elder Ellis

p.s. unfortunately i Haven't heard anything about mothers days calls. I'll just try to call around 7 pm (my time) if we call on Sunday. I'll let you know when i know. Conference call it up this time?

Eggselent 'pasxha' !

It's been a pretty good week here in kazan.
Easter came... we spent a little bit of time and each decorated an egg. I did my t-rex head. He made Elder Egg. At church my companion heard that if you squeeze a hard boiled egg in one hand that you cant break it. He tried it just as sacrament meeting was starting... he broke it. so we had to go wash him up. He did the washing... i just had to be in sight and sound.
Later on in the day we had a few really good lessons. We have a baptism on Saturday, one set for mid-may, and we set one yesterday for early june. We have a couple other investigators in the mix too, but have yet to set a date. The work is good in this area, The city is beautiful, and my companion and i get along well. But... transfers are coming up quickly and we heard a little rumor that only one or two companionships aren't being moved around. *sigh* it was good while it lasted. I just hope my companion gets the boot and i get to stay here in Kazan.
Later yesterday my companion heard that you can smash a boiled egg... but not a fresh one. So he tried. Unfortunately i was within sight, sound, and the splatter zone. Luckily today is P-day and i can do some laundry.
There's a dragon exhibit at the museum here. I'm trying to convince our zone leader that dragons are considered part of the culture so we can go for a cultural night. The city symbol IS a dragon afterall. But he seems to want to go to a ballet instead... Italian, about jews?.. what kind of RUSSIAN culture is that. DRAGONS.
We also got to do some good service in a park. there was about 20 members there and a few investigators. all wearing "helping hands" jerseys as we picked up all sorts of trash. It was hard to decided if there was more poop or empty bottles of alcohol there. I would say alcohol. but that's probably just because we weren't picking up the poop. But there was A TON of alcohol bottles. Russia.
We did quite a bit of work this week, despite being home 2 days from my companions foot. He had some warts frozen off. So we were able to bake my birthday cake and have a little birtday party for me. thanks for the cake and the blue frosting. My companion pooped BRIGHT GREEN after that. Mine was more of an olive green. You can edit that part for the blog if you want to. It's more of imformation for family... but hey... keep it if you so desire.
Well... hate to end on a crappy note... but time is up.
I'm happy and doing quite well. I'm sure you could tell from my finding humor in poop jokes.
i love you all!
love, Elder Ellis!

Suprise Zone Conference...

Hello!
before i forget. I got the package from mom. Thanks!
Also thanks to kortney for the ice cleats. I got the package and opened it on the FIRST DAY that the ice melted off all the side walks. They should come in good hand for next year though. Thank you!
So this week we had a surprise zone conference. We took a 7 hour bus to Togliatti on wednesday, working in the area with the elders there that night. then the next day had zone conference. President just showed us on a pie chart how much time we waste by not talking to people on buses and not calling during lunch. Its a lot. we came back on friday. On Saturday we just went back to our old ways of not talking to so many people on buses and such. But this time, at the end of the day we felt HORRIBLE and were quite grumpy. So we've changed our ways now. I talked to SO MANY people on the bus yesterday! No 'real success' but at the end of the day i felt like i spent the Lord's time well.
Our trip to togliatti was fun. I pet a camel. And did a lot of contacting in a tiny area. (our area is half of a HUGE city... theirs is 1/10 of a BIG city) so yes... there area is tiny. which means they've pretty much talked to everyone already. which means most people were not very nice. I heard more english swear words directed at us than i ever did in High School. I won't say i'm glad i'm not serving in that area... but then i would get transfered there. So i'll just say i'm quite happy to be in the beautiful city of Kazan where we have lots of work and a huge pool of investigators. We should have atleast 2 baptisms by the end of the month. and I assume a couple more in the following weeks.
I've got not a lot of time (our old internet place shut down so we had to find a new one... and we haven't learned the system yet so it takes a while.)
so i'll wrap this up.
I hope all is going well. Happy anniversary Mom and Dad! love you!
love,
Elder Ellis

General Conference...

Well it was a pretty busy week filled with a few good stories. But I’m not sure how much time i really have to write about them.
I do want to talk about General Conference though.
Many of you probably assume I speak and understand Russian quite well now. Well... you know the phrase about assuming... and you're wrong. I don't understand Russian... Still!
This caused me a little concern with conference coming up. We watch it a week late here so that the branches can all receive the DVD with conference and the voice-over translations. Which means I was going to have to watch 10 hours of conference all in Russian. I was a little worried about that. Just 3 hours of Russian church makes my head explode and want to take a weeklong vacation. So I prayed quite a bit in preparation to hear prophets and apostles speak in behalf of Christ... in Russian. Later in the week our district leader asked if I would want to watch it in English. YES! that would be fantastic. So I was put a little at ease the day before we would listen. Well Saturday morning came and we waited for the members to show up. A few came. But not the member with the keys to the family history center where we had planned to watch conference! So... conference began... I tried intently to listen and understand while jotting down notes. And to my surprise, after the first talk I had a page of notes! I must have understood?! the first session went on and I continued to listen, understand (not perfectly) and learn. What helped me the most was the things that I learned for myself from the thoughts and the impressions that the Spirit gave me as I listened. Sure I didn't really understand the sentences spoken.. But I understood the concepts, and the Spirit was able to fill in the gaps. I listened and took notes for the first 3 sessions, and learned a good amount. Finally for the Sunday afternoon session the member with the keys showed up and we were able to watch some talks in English. This was much better. I am grateful that I was able to learn from listening in Russian, But i am also very grateful for the opportunity I had to hear what the Lord wanted me to learn in my own language. And well... That’s why I must learn this stinkin' tough language. I need to give those hear the opportunity to learn the Lord's teaching in THEIR own language so that the Spirit can more easily testify to them of its truth.
Anyway, I'm still getting used to the new area and companion. It’s a little hard to change, but I’m really glad for the change.
well I have to end now.
love you all.
love, Elder Ellis

Birthday in Kazan...

Hello! Happy Birthday! I celebrated my birthday today… lets face it… birthday on fast Sunday as a missionary. Not a good birthday. Birthday on p-day. A little better. I celebrated by taking my new companion out to one of the nice restraunts in my new city… McDonalds! No really… ‘MakDak’ is where all the business meet for lunch here. Kazan is beautiful! And today is WARM. Plus 8 celcius. Not sure what that translates to… except a lot of muddy puddles. But thanks to red wing I don’t have to tread lightly. Yeah gor-tex! My new companion is a 25 year old from St. Petersburg. He’s as obedient as a Russian missionary gets, and he’s a hard worker. We have a ton of work in the area. My whole last cycle we had 7 member present meetings. We’ve already had 7 in this area in the 4 days I’ve been here. I’m excited about actually doing missionary work. The Russian is coming along. Slowly. I met up with an elder who is 6 weeks behind me… and well he already speaks better than me. Dang. But I’m only speaking Russian now… so that should help. I’ve been kinda quiet lately. That’s weird for me. I did get the socks from jasmine. I haven’t gotten mom’s package yet because I live 9 hours away from the office… so mail doesn’t make it up here too often. I want to know some of the history you found out about this place! All I know is that there are a lot of muslims. We have a mosque right next to our apartment and we get to here their prayers 5 times a day? Although, we’re never actually home. We don’t even eat dinner here… too busy. It’s nice. I’m very happy to be in kazan. It was a good transfer. God loves me on my birthday. Well.. we spent too much time at MakDak today… so I gotta end this one. I'll try to make next week a good e-mail. If not we'll just chat when i get home. I love you all! Thanks for the birthday wishes! Love, Elder Ellis