THREE

Bonjour!

 

I woke up this morning and couldn't believe that it has already been three weeks! Time flies when you're on the Lord's errand! I tried especially hard this week to use every second of it wisely. It really is amazing what can happen to your life when you decide to devote a little more. I promise that if you take the time to consider what the Lord has done for you each day, you we be blessed. I know that because I've seen it in my own life. The power of prayer is just that—power! In Preach My Gospel (which, by the way, I swear will be a Standard Work someday. That book is inspired! A member of the Twelve commented on it saying that it was "printed on this side of the veil, but written on the other.") it says about prayer: You can pray at any time and in any setting. That is true! Just imagine offering up a simple prayer every hour of the day! In that way I am jealous of the religions where that is common practice—to give prayers all throughout the day. But we can and we should!

 

This last Sunday we said goodbye to 45 French missionaries from our zone. We got to do something unique to the Church in French. There is a beautiful hymn in the French hymn book, no. 179, that isn't in any other language. I would highly recommend listening to it! So they sang that to us for the closing hymn. It was sad to see so many of them go—I've looked up to a lot them! They've taught me so many things about French and about the Gospel. Our hallways will be a little quieter at least for three weeks until we get more French missionaries. At that point, I'll be where the older missionaries were when I got here! It's so funny when a new group of missionaries comes in because everyone just peppers them with advice. I remember on the first day I was here, every single person I walked by had something to say about the "MTC Timewarp" or "Don't drink the orange juice" and so on... I try my best (and I think I might have made myself promise at one point to never pepper others with advice) to welcome them in gently.

 

Oh! Before I forget! Jessie Marquis wrote me but I lost her letter and so I don't have her address! I put the letter that I wrote back to her in the envelope with your letters, Mom and Dad. (So Jessie, if you are reading this on my blog, comment with your address so my parents can send the letter along.) Thanks for the letters and packages everyone! Every night I know I can count on someone to send something. And thanks for the "get well" wishes! I'm feeling 100% better! Elder Keenan and I have started running again in the mornings which is such a relief to be up and moving again! My voice is back, minus my falsetto, so singing is restricted to baritone. I'm singing at the devotional tonight! So we'll see if my voice holds up or not!

 

This week was great. It was fast! But definitely great!

 

Wednesday: I had a goal to speak as much French as possible. It was hard but I pretty successfully stuck to it! I think I may have mentioned this before, but I've started to think quite a bit in French. When I go to bed each night I can hear French rolling through my head. It's the weirdest thing. Uncle Derek told me that would happen, but I didn't think it would come on so quickly! (Oh! I never sent him a Happy Birthday card a while back! If you're reading this, Derek: Happy Belated Birthday!) Wednesday night we taught Lyze about prayer. It's tough because she doesn't quite believe in God yet, but we committed her to pray! I went back to gym for the first time and played volleyball! I love volleyball so much. But it seems like that is everyone's fall back sport. Meaning, if you don't want to play anything in the MTC you play volleyball. Which adds up to very crowded courts and some pretty slow games, but that's okay. We have fun anyways.

 

Thursday: Our zone set a goal to make every Thursday "PVL Day." (PVL being Parle Votre Langue, or Speak Your Language.) So I got to speak all French for two days in a row! It really helps me to do that because I have been keeping a little notebook with all of the words that I didn't know how to say throughout the day and then I go back at night or during language study and learn all of those words. My vocabulary has grown quite a bit because of that! It's amazing what a little dedication and determination will do when trying to accomplish something. We had a good lesson from Frère Smith about praying for the people we are going to teach in Montréal. We are so incredibly lucky to have him as a teacher. I'm not sure if I've told you about him yet? But I'm short on time already, grr..., so I don't really have time to. Just know that he is the greatest blessing to have here in the MTC!

 

Friday: We, irreverently, translated "Friday" by Rebbecca Black into French and sang it at lunch... I did learn a few new words from it! We played volleyball at the sand courts and I had three really good hits! The Samoans like me because I can set for them. We taught Rimas and Lyze—preparing for two lessons in one day was tough! When we followed up on the commitment we left with Lyze she surprised us and said that she had prayed morning and night each day! She offered to say the closing prayer. That was amazing.

 

Saturday: Mom, did you write the cleaning staff and tell them that I also clean toilets like a mad-man as well? I got booted off of mirror cleaning and put on toilet duty. It wasn't too bad. (I'm short on time...) Great lessons, great food, and great Spirit.

 

Sunday: I already told you about the Elders and Sisters leaving. Great meetings all day. Great fireside at night—I wrote about it in my journal so you can read about it sometime later.

 

Monday: It was a Monday! Need I say more? Food, study, food, study, study, sleep.

 

Today: Wrote a few letters, did my laundry (didn't lose any socks!) and we're going to dinner and the devotional after this. I think we're going to watch the CES Fireside, which Frère Smith told us was amazing! You guys should watch it.

 

I love all of you! I am so happy right now! Every morning when I put on my name tag I have a little moment.

 

Elder Ellis