Carsten's 1st Baptism

No letter from Carsten this week since we had a phone call on Mothers Day, so I thought

I'd post the picture of his 1st baptism to a sweet lady named Susie Hammond.

(Elder Ellsworth & Elder Sundrud with Susie & Jim Hammond)

Letter from Carsten - May 7, 2012

May 7, 2012

Well, the first week with my new companion Elder Farmer has come and gone. Hes a really cool guy from Wyoming. Hes about to go home, 2 months left, and he's a very good missionary. Hes also 6 foot 3 haha. we get along very well. We are now just working on better transitions in lessons back and forth, were pretty rocky at it. I guess our teaching styles are just rather different, but we should have it down here in the next week. things are good tho!

We have very few investigators now a days since they are mostly old folks and seem to have lots of problems lately. so were looking for more people to teach. but we have been receiving a TON of help from the members which has helped a lot. we have lots of lists now on people we need to go and visit, so that will keep us busy real well, and help us find some new investigators.

Anyways, that's all i can think of today! but that's okay, cause i get to call home this Sunday!!! so if i remember anything else, ill say it then. love you all, have a great week!

Con Amor,

Eldersworth

Letter from Carsten - April 16, 2012

The week of the JEANS
April 16, 2012

Well this week has been a little slower for missionary work again, so we are continually trying new things to help speed up the work. We have a lot of great potential investigators about to come our way and are excited about that!

Our investigator Susie, who just got baptized was confirmed yesterday! We are very happy about that. And the other day we were in the neighborhood so we visited our favorite old people the Seglers. They immediately commanded us to make a sandwich and sit down and eat, which was good, cause we had no dinner that night. They are great. She is super nice and he is really interesting and funny. He has lots of back problems so we go over and help them out with things all the time. Once we swept their porch, cleaned their windows, put together a table, and set up their Wii, Kindle Fire, and Ipad all in one day! So they love us for that! Its funny, we call ourselves the I.T. missionaries, cause we help all the old people work their tablet computers and ipads and put the scriptures on them (they ALL have em, and none know how to use them) and and we help people speed up and/or fix their computers like every day haha. its pretty fun and helpful, its gotten me into investigators houses before, good thing i know how to do that stuff!

I have one funny story. Last p-day we went to the Croshers for dinner. They are really awesome people and LOVE us. We went in jeans and normal clothes cause we were busy that day. Well, Charlene Crosher is the cutest girl in the ward, and of course was there for dinner. Not that i would like, know that or anything - haha anyways, after dinner me, Elder Sundrud, Charlene, and her sister went out back and were jumping on the trampoline. Elder Sundrud and Charlene were teaching me how to do a front flip cause im uncoordinated. Well i figured it out! so i was jumping and came down to land one flip, and hear a big RIIIIIP! Did i rip my only jeans right down the butt seam in front of the cutest girl in the ward? Yep. Yep i did. Was i embarrassed? nope! in fact, i decided to keep practicing anyways lol, but then it ripped some more so i decided to stop lol. But it was extremely humorous. As missionaries, we are bombarded with intensely awkward situations all day, every day. so, im awkward proof! It's great. Anyways that's my funny story of the week.

I love you all, have a great week!

Con Amor,

Eldersworth

(Carsten wearing his FAVORITE jeans)

Letter from Carsten - April 9, 2012

April 9, 2012

Well, i don't think i have too much to say this week unfortunately. It was one of those weeks where just about every appointment was cancelled, so we didn't go to hardly any set appointments! We spent most of our time contacting other people we needed to visit and stuff of that sort, so all in all, a pretty slow week. but that's okay, cause this week should be much faster!

Sunday we had a great time. Church was awesome. There were a LOT of people there and it was all good. We even taught a primary class. The only downer was that Suzy Hammond (who was just baptized) couldn't come so she wasn't confirmed yesterday. Hopefully we will be able to do that soon.

Sunday evening we went to The Hansen family and had a great Easter dinner! They had some family in town so we talked for hours, played a board game and watched some golf and had a good time. It was really fun.

That's all for this week. Until next week...

Love ya all, have a good week

Con Amor,

Eldersworth

(Here is a picture of Carten celebrating Easter with his sisters in 2010 - pre mission)

Letter from Carsten - April 2, 2012

Well, i had an exciting week this week! Our investigator Susie Hammond got baptised on Sunday. The whole program was really well done and spiritual. We are very happy for her. The ward is really great! She already has a LOT of good friends in the ward, so we are really happy. We met with her every day of last week, and it was awesome. She will be confirmed this coming Sunday. Ain't that GREAT!

Other than that, things have been pretty normal! Yesterday for P-day we played football and ultimate frisbee for like 5 hours in the sun, and i got a really bad sunburn on my neck and forehead - lol. It hurts a bit, and my legs are crazy sore so no p-90x today! Our legs are shot. but that was a lot of fun!

We did a bunch of other stuff yesterday too and didn't have time to email, so we had to do it this morning. This morning we had our apartment checked by some guy from the mission. I'll have you know that we passed! Our place is pretty darn clean, minus the floors, they need vacuuming. but we passed, so that was cool.

Well, that's really the highlights! its been a great and very busy week, until next week!

Con Amor,

Eldersworth

(driving the streets of California)

HAPPY EASTER!

Letter from Carsten - March 26, 2012

March 26, 2012

Well, its been a good week or two, we have had some good work to do. i don't remember what iv written about the Hammons, but they are awesome! Jim is a member who a few months ago decided to get reactivated in the church. He recently received the aaronic priesthood. and his wife Susie, who was raised catholic, has been coming to church and will be baptized on April 1st! its pretty awesome! She was a new investigator a week or two ago, and things have gone well. before we even taught the first lesson she asked us when she could get baptized and stuff. They have been working with the bishop a lot so he's gonna be baptizing her! she wants to be baptized quickly so that they can get sealed in the temple before their next anniversary. tTalk about the best darn investigator ever right!We are teaching her daughter too. We are very excited, and will meet with her basically every day of this week to finish the lessons, but things are lookin good! and lots of people should come to it, since it was well announced, and we have a choir practice right before the baptism at 6. so, conference, and a baptism. Gonna be a good weekend!

On other news, i came up with a sweet idea with the help of our zone leader Elder Nielson. I hate writing things down, and have lots of letters to write which take priority over journal. so basically i don't write in my journal, which i know i will regret after the mission. so, i bought a 2 dollar microphone for my ipod nano watch, which i will use to keep basically a captains log of every day of my mission! and when i get home, ill figure out a way to convert that audio into written text on paper using moms ipad. so I'm pretty excited, and the microphone is super cool! I'm excited :)

We started up P90x again, so that's good. gonna help us be healthier and get started in the morning better! pretty excited.

Anyways, cant think of whatever else has happened this week, though I'm sure there is a lot.

love you all and have a great week!

Con Amor, Eldersworth



Letter from Carsten - March 19, 2012

March 19, 2012

Well, im 20. pretty exciting right? i know, im not a teen anymore, which must mean im more mature now right?

Anyways, the weeks been pretty awesome. Most succesful week we have had all transfer, and i got 2 whole cherry chip cakes! for my birthday dinner we had my favorite, tortellini with chicken and squash, and cake and ice cream. the Harveys were awesome and gave me all my favorites. My birthday was on the busiest day we have every week, which is good for a missionary! so it was a good day.Am i a little homesick? no way. okay fine a little. i also got lots of awesome letters from family and friends, thanks to all of you! i, including my old ym/ yw group which i thought was cool.

As for the work around here, we have a new investigator! So this guy named Jim Hammond has been working with the bishop and us to reactivate himself, and things are going along extremely well!He just got a new job too which is good. Well his wife Susie is taking the lessons! At first when we came over she would just hide in a room or avoid us. but then she started coming to church with him and being there for our lessons, and has lots of very intelligent questions! and then we asked her if she was interested in taking the lessons to learn more about the church and she agreed, so we are pretty dang excited.

So, sorry my emails tend to be short. but i thought about it, and i could never focus on other missionaries emails cause they are always so stinking long! even now im bad at it lol, so i figure that my short and concise emails are more readable. hope you think the same! anyways, i love you all and have a great week :)
Con Amor,
Eldersworth

Today is my BIRTHDAY!

Today I turned 20 years old!

Thank you so much for the presents and cards, I really appreciated it.

Letter from Carsten - March 12, 2012

March 12, 2012

Well, guess who shook the hand of L.Tom Perry, Apostle of the Lord today!? I did, and it was awesome! He came to the mission so we all met together and shook his hand. He gave us a really awesome talk! it was really cool. Hes really tall, really funny and nice. I had a good time, and on top of it got to see a bunch of my really good missionary friends from my old zone and what not, so its been a good day so far.

As for the rest of my life, I'm about to turn TWENTY in a few days! it really hasn't yet hit me that I'm about to have a birthday. pretty cool.

As for missionary work, things are good! the area is a little slow in the form of investigators, but we have a lot of good things going on with less active members and normal members, which might turn into referrals. We started a family mission plan, so thins are going good!

Anyways, not much time today, so i love you all and i hope you have a great day :D

Letter from Carsten - March 6, 2012

March 6, 2012

Hello! sorry i didn't write yesterday, we were too busy to get to email so we just got to do it today. Today was great tho! We got up early and chopped wood for Sister Seminario, they are the best family they LOVE missionaries. anyway we did that, i chopped wood and split stumps and stuff, and it was really fun! and then we had a lesson real quick, and then we did MORE service and helped brother Irvin pull out the tree in his yard. so that was fun, then we got panda. But me and elder Sundrud felt like city boys when we chopped wood, cause at first we didn't know what we were doing. but we got the hang of it and got a lot done.

Yesterday we went to this place called Charlie Browns, its this store with literally EVERYTHING you could ever imagine, lots of collectible stuff and ridiculous things. and its a restaurant too, so i got a hot dog. but you can get ostrich burgers and buffalo burgers, and cactus flavored smoothies. it was great. and then i bought a knife at another cool store, cause it was cool. I put it in my emergency preparedness sack.

Other than that, its been pretty normal round here. We teach a bunch of people. we were teaching Fran and Latora, they are the really old black ladies. Fran is the investigator and Latora is the member. We invite Fran to church and talk about why we go, and then we invite Latora, and she says many things that don't make sense, and basically says she doesn't have to go to church. Shes convinced she doesn't have to go. so that's always interesting. she usually says things that make it weird for teaching, or just confuse us all. but shes way nice, so whatever, it'll work out.

 

 

For district meeting we had a cool activity, which involved marshmallows, an egg, and my hand. its hard to explain tho so ill leave it at that and let you just guess lol. needless to say, it was messy.

Anyways, that's all i can think of that was interesting! have a good week and i love you all :)

 

 

Con Amor,

Eldersworth

Letter from Carsten - February 27, 2012

February 27, 2012

 

Hey family!

So this week was pretty good, not much too interesting going on, other than hopefully we are going to go play ultimate frisbee today. Other than that, nothing out of the ordinary! Just missionary work and sleep!

 

We finally taught this guy named brother Carlon, who wants to be baptized so he can baptize his son. We set a date for the week of July 4th, cause that's symbolic for him of a year of being off alcohol and turning his life around. and he was at church with his whole family! so that's pretty sweet. But i might not be here when he gets baptized, which is a bummer.

 

We are also teaching this girl named Monica, her mom is in our ward but she lives with a lady in our ward. so we teach her a lot and have a lot of fun. That's all the important updates i got for you guys! hope i didn't bore you to death! haha :)

 

Love you all and have a good week!

Con Amor,

Eldersworth

 

 

 

 

 

 

Letter from Carsten - February 13, 2012

February 13, 2012

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Well, very little time today. We played dodgeball till o clock so there wasn't much time for much else, and now it's just about dinner time! Which we have every day now! this ward is so great! we always get meals, and the members here are really nice and fun, and very helpful.

We get lots of referals, and lots of member support and help, i love it. It's so organized in this ward, so thats really nice.

And Elder Sundrud is fun, we are doing well. He sounds, acts, and talks just like Stephan, which is hilarious. literally the same sense of humor.

The investigators are good too, mostly really old ladies, but they actually remember when you ask them to do things like read and pray, so thats really nice.

My favorite investigator is Brother Carlson. He wants to baptize his son into the churh, but isnt a member. so first he is going to take the lessons from us and quit smoking, and then he will be good to go! its pretty cool! So overall, i love it here. its wayyyyy different, but way fun.

Anyways, love you all.

Have a good day :D

Con Amor,

Eldersworth

Yes, even missionary's like to PLANK!

Letter from Carsten - February 6, 2012

February 6, 2012

Elder Carsten Ellsworth
5021 W Ave L-14 #18
Lancaster, California 93536

Well, things are crazy busy today and i haven't got much time, but, i got transferred! Its to Leona Valley in Lancaster, and its English speaking! which is weird, i don't know what I'm gonna do - I've taught in English a few times and I'm horrible. i can only talk in Spanish about the gospel, so it'll be interesting.

My companion's name is Elder Sundrud, and hes a legit dude. He looks and acts like a Mormon Stephan! he is big into music and was a DJ for raves and stuff before, and hes a funny dude. The area is really cool too. I'm excited to be here, and ill say more when i have more time! love you all!

Con....wait...English work...

With love,

Eldersworth

Letter from Carsten - January 30, 2012

January 30, 2012

Well, another day in the life of crazy Van Nuys! its so crazy here. everyday we see ridiculous things that just make us question the sanity of the human race. Just silly things all the time hahaha. we have to shake our heads and laugh multiple times a day.

As for the work, its good! we had another kind of rough week, where 2 days this week we had just utter zero days. As in zero numbers, not taught anybody. its a real downer when that happens, cause it hard not having anything to do and having alllll your backups fail. But theres something to learn from it I'm sure.

The very few lessons that we taught, were really awesome! This guy Chris Ramirez, which is Hermana Lopez's husband, is taking the lessons really well. and The mother of a family that gives us food on Mondays is too, shes been catholic 70 years and i feel like shes taking the message well and understands that she needs to get her answers from god and not from the traditions of men. so were helping her with that, we taught her a really good lesson on the restoration, and tonight are gonna show her the restoration DVD. Its pretty cool.

We found this girl named Tania, shes a single mom, non-denom christian. But shes freaking quick, like we ask her questions and she doesn't miss a beat to answer it, with something very intelligent. I like quick people, they remember things and understand when they are feeling the spirit, because they remember the lessons we share about how to know what the spirit feels like. So I'm really excited. so far she agrees with everything we teach and really respects what we do. Shes a single mom.

Anyways, theres been lots of ups and downs. But that's the life, you just gotta take what you can and learn from it. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Con Amor,

Eldersworth



Letter from Carsten - Januray 23, 2012

January 23, 2012

Dear Family,

We seem to have less and less time every P-day. Today we have an appointment at 4pm.This weeks been really good - we've had a pretty successful week, and were starting to find lots of really solid awesome people that are actually prepared.

 

So were kinda prioritizing who we teach. We were teaching Rene, one of our best investigators, and right before we teach him and his wife this guy calls him and started making fun of him for listening to us and telling him he shouldn't. So theres always opposition, and its super annoying. Were hoping every things okay, but you never know how it goes.

 

We found this guy named Jose, and he is AWESOME! He opened up to us and told us all these awesome stories about how he became religious, and his thoughts, he's a really smart realllllllly humble guy, and he is always really appreciative of everything we do for him, its pretty cool. So he is awesome.

 

And lately when we go knocking, we've found some good people to teach, which is nice. usually its not very fruitful. so we are counting our blessings. We had a bunch of people at church! Two less active families that we've been working with forever, and Rene and his kids. that was really awesome, so things are really turning around for the better. 

 

The district is awesome, we are all super close. We have a lot of fun as a district all the time, and get along well. On Wednesday we had district meeting on the roof of the target parking garage. (see pictures below)

 

And today we all got together with some others from the zone to play basketball. It's raining outside! its awesome, I miss the rain. So overall, things are great!

 

Hope you all have a good week! love you,

Con Amor,

Eldersworth

Carsten's California Mission ACTION shot

 

Carsten's District Missionary's

 

District Meeting on top the Target Building

 

Letter From Carsten - January 16, 2012

January 16, 2012

Hey family how are you?

This weeks been a good one - Today we played indoor soccer for the last time -  we had a really fun time. Our awesome investigator Rene came too! He was good.. He's older tho so he hurt his ankle  which sucks. But he'll be okay. We had a lot of fun.

 

 

I think the Apple Store doesn't want me on their computers much longer, so this will be quick lol.

 

 

This week we taught a miracle lesson with The Lopez family, it was awesome. He's never wanted anything to do with us but recently called us to schedule an appointment with us. And it went really well, he asked lots of questions and was really cool, he has lots of potential. and is really important to his family to learn.

 

 

We also found a really cool young family that kept talking about never having the opportunity to talk to the missionaries. so that was really cool too.

 

 

Other than that, not too much - just having a great time and excited for next week!

 

 

I love you guys, hope you all have a great week!

Con Amor,

Eldersworth

Letter from Carsten - January 9, 2012

January 9, 2012

Dear Loved Ones,

How goes the life? Great I'm sure. I'm currently in an Apple store writing my emails. its freaking me out cause there's sooo much awesome technology, i don't know what to do in here! I like technology! Maybe the mission will get I-Pads soon. it would be extremely efficient, honestly. I wouldn't be surprised.

 

Today's been good, we played basketball for 2 hours, and then have been cruising the mall looking for hat stores, ate some really good burgers, its great. my district is awesome, we have a lot of fun. And soon we will go do some shopping.

 

(one of  their investigators during the holidays)

As for mission life, its been good. its a little tough lately cause we haven't been able to find ANY of our investigators, everyone is being really sketchy. So its tough to teach lessons when we spend the whole day driving from place to place. but nonetheless we have fun with it, and when we do get in its always a really super awesome lesson. so, its a little tough, but we have this plan to go reactivate all the less active members in our area (there are many) so that should be good and get us a lot of referrals.

 

I still love Elder Marçal, the man is great. We get along well, and we teach really well together. He brings some good new fresh ideas to the area, its been really nice. and he's a smart guy. I'm glad he's around, its good.

 

(Carsten's new companion Elder Marsal - yes we've told Carsten his tie is WAY to SHORT)

 

The other day we were walking to our car and some crazy raspy voice yells HEY ELDERS, GET OVER HERE RIGHT NOW so obviously, we immediately head over there to figure out who the heck knows we are elders. And its some (maybe homeless) bearded man, and his friend who was similar. He said their names were pastor bob and pastor Stephen, although i highly doubt it. But they invited us to a homeless person lunch at their Lutheran church, which we didn't go. But they were crazy, and talked to us about some bible stuff. it was a pretty silly experience. They were super funny though. 

 

Later we went to an investigators house, and her roommate was there. He was trying so hard to bible bash with us, it was funny. When they bible bash they speak for a solid 3 minutes straight till the point where you forget the subject, and then when you return to what your talking about with a simple straight to the point answer, with bible references, they get all upset and go on talking for another 3 minutes, its hilarious. They just get so mad, its ridiculous how little people really know about the bible, but they still love to bash. We just answer the question, say something that will make them leave. Then we taught our investigator after a prayer to bring the spirit back. It was good tho, cause it showed her the difference. The spirit of contention is of the devil, but as soon as he was gone and we had prayer the spirit was strong, and everything taught actually made sense. so it was cool, she got to see the light and the difference between the truth, and bible bashing.

 

It is so ridiculous how true this church is, i love it. there is sooooooo much physical evidence, as well as tons of obvious evidence in the bible, but we don't teach anyone that. Cause if we did we would be like any other church. Instead we teach the simple truths, and ask them to have the faith to ask God themselves if this is the truth. Its as simple as that. And then when you know its true, its really fun to start and learn about all the concrete evidence of the truth and fullness of the church. its so fun to discover this stuff. But yeah, we've been having a lot of fun, and working real hard.

 

Other than that, i can't think of much more. Just living the life as always. It's always interesting here, and I'm having a good time.

 

I love you all, and i hope you have a good week!

Con Amor,

Eldersworth

Letter from Carsten - January 3, 2012

January 3, 2012

Dear Family,

Well, its been a stinking crazy couple of weeks! First of all, sorry i didn't write last Monday, we literally ran out of time because of transfers. and yesterday all the computer places were closed. So we are here today getting emails done finally. so much to do.

First of all, i have a new companion! his name is Elder Marsal. He's from Brazil, and lives in Utah, and is totally awsome and hilarious! He's re ally smart, a good teacher, and we get along great, its amazing. Right away we clicked and so were good friends. From the beginning we have taught smoothly together, its nice. He is very knowledgeable on the bible, and i am with the Book of Mormon so we make a good team. He is extremely good at soccer, and does lots of cool stuff, including speak Portuguese. So yeah, this transfer will be a good one.

(My Christmas Tree)

I miss Elder Troy very much, but that's life in the mission.

As for Christmas and new years, they were good! Christmas we had a bunch of dinners with different families and had a really fun time. And new years was fun too. We were tracting after dark and we looked at each other and went wait....what night is it? And then we realized it was new years eve, so we were like dannnnnnng we need to get home soon, its gonna get dangerous on the streets soon. So we went and visited this lady we teach really quick, and then we both just got a huge feeling like omg we need to go home right now. so we got outta there and drove home really carefully, and just spent the night reading or whatever in the apartment. went to bed at a normal time haha. i like sleeping, and we cant afford to stay up anyways, so it was okay. i had a good time.

As for the investigators, there isnt much new going on, since it was the first week as a companionship things were a little slow. but i feel like a lot is about to happen, and were almost always busy. But other than that i dont remember what else there is to say haha, just that im busy and happy and learning and teaching a ton! things are great :)

Love ya all, have a great week :)

Con Amor,

Elder Ellsworth

(p.s. i started P90X last night! danggg its crazy hard, i loved it! i liked that it was just simple things like different push ups and pull ups but arranged in such a way to do a lot of work. it was awesome! im excited about it :) so im a P90X guy officially now. its pretty legit stuff)

Here are a few pictures of Carsten with some of the other missionaries in his area

No letter this week December 26, 2011 - Transfer Day

It was SO AWESOME talking to Carsten on Christmas day. There won't be an e-mail today because it's transfer day. His current companion Elder Troy is being moved to another area to be District Leader. He's been such a great help to Carsten the past few months helping him get settled in his first area and helping him tons with his Spanish! Carsten had nothing but GREAT things to say about him!

Elder Troy & Elder Ellsworth

December 2011



Letter from Carsten - December 19, 2011

 

 

December 19, 2011

 

It's ALMOST Christmas!

 

Well, before i forget mentioning it, we get to go to the temple tomorrow! YAY! So I'm super excited. We don't get back till like 4, its gonna be nice. It will be a good little half day field trip.

 

And so far our Christmas plans are, dinner with the Hernandez family! We have dinner with them every Sunday night ha ha. but this time its Christmas, and we are gonna bring our investigator Rafael with us.

 

Christmas morning we have church, and then probably just hanging out with a few other missionaries and making phone calls home! it'll be real good. Ill try and take pictures - promise mom!

 

This week has been a good one for sure. Its been REALLLLLY slow the last couple of weeks, so the weeks were dragging on. But this week flew by, which means we were busy - pretty great.

 

We have this couple were teaching named Gabby and Francisco, who are reallllly nice. I'm super excited to teach them, Gabby was talking about how she just doesn't have faith anymore and doesn't know where to start to regain it, and we were like, "oh don't worry were good at that, its what we do". So were gonna teach them Tuesday. They are both are very receptive and like to talk. They always seem like they feel a giant whole in their lives. Like they aren't really happy. Which is where the gospel comes in, so I'm excited about helping them.

 

Were also teaching Rafael and Manual a lot, they live in the same apartment. Rafael is disabled and has is working on an alcohol problem, but is always positive minded. He is struggling lately cause he sits around at home all day alone, so temptation comes strong. But i think he will be okay. And Manuel is very nice. His work hasn't called him in a few weeks so hes working on making ends meet, its sad. and his mother died Saturday. But he has expressed interest in us and wants help, and he came to church with his little daughter Blanca, so i hope good things happen.

 

So i love you all and i wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Con Amor,

Elder Ellsworth

Letter from Carsten - December 12, 2011

December 12, 2011

 

So have you ever heard of beef tripe? Well, tripe is like sheep stomach, so i guess beef tripe is like cow stomach. I'm glad i didn't know what it was until after I ate it, because that's super nasty! I took one bite (i thought it looked like squid tentacles) and i didn't even know what it really was. I almost threw up. So i wont lie, i definitely hid the rest of it under some lettuce leaves on my plate.

 

Yesterday we went to the Coleman's house (as per usual) and had a lunch thing with some members and some of the district. Its been pretty good lately, been moving up with the success! we can actually find people in their homes these days! And we have managed to schedule a ginormous amount of appointments this week, so that will be awesome.

 

Some notable things this week were we went to find our investigator Rafael, he's super cool. He had 2 strokes a while ago and is pretty crippled, and forgot how to write in English. But he's off crutches now and has a dream to run. Last night we went to his house and he wasn't home, but his roommate we always say hi to was and invited us in. We talked to him and set up an appointment. He has no friends so we are gonna get him to church to make friends. He's a year sober from alcohol, its cool. But then Rafael stumbled home, and we knew something was up. He told us that he drinks and he really wants to stop, so we are gonna visit him tonight and help him out, i feel like it will be a good opportunity for him to see the power of the Book of Mormon.

 

We also found a really cool couple, Juan and Julieta, who were really nice and let us in. we were gonna share about Jesus' birth and all, but she brought up the BoM so we were like okay, restoration lesson time.

 

And we got to teach the Reyes family again! they are the 3 kids that want to get baptized, but their dad is super Catholic and wont allow it. So were gonna keep teaching and waiting for a miracle, we've got some ideas.

 

As for Hugo and Rosa that I've talked about before, Rosa is the super old lady that was really solid and almost got baptized. But her mom who's 102 years old is against it, and so Rosa has been super avoiding us. I see her every time we go by, and she pretends shes not home. its pretty sad. And Hugo is doing OK. The "Virgen Guadelupe" is still "his mother" (we tried to share about not worshipping anything other than God, didn't sink in) and turns out he doesn't like our church. But, we had a great lesson about his relationship with God and talked about church.

 

I also got to go on splits with Elder Suarez. He was sick so we didn't get to go out and work till 3pm, but we still had a good time. I really enjoy being on bike, although days like this when its pouring rain all day I'd rather be in a car!

 

President Martin showed up at the church yesterday which was cool. He's so great. I don't remember if i told you, but i wrote him in my weekly letter about my Dear John, and he called me a few days later and made sure i was doing alright and to see if he could do anything for me. Hes super great, i love the man.

 

And today we played some hardcore free for all dodge ball with some 30 missionaries for 1 1/2 hours. It was crazy. Elder Ely brought his investigator, Nefi, and he played too.  BTW - Nefi is Spanish for Nephi, as in book of Mormon prophet. Legit right? His parents used to be Mormon, and now he is investigating the church, he's really awesome.

 

Well, that's all. Thanks mom for the Christmas gifts! I'm super excited to open them all up on Christmas.

 

I love you all, have a good week!

Elder Ellsworth

 

Letter from Carsten - December 5, 2011

December 5, 2011

 

La Vida,

 

Well, this weeks been a  roller coaster, and really fast and slow all at the same time. The highlight was definitely Wednesday, we had a zone conference with lots of other missionaries, and then worked from 4 till the end of the night.

 

Yeah, guess who got 5 baptismal dates set in that small window of time? WE DID! yeahhh! it was a suuuuper awesome day. Sadly tho, 3 have already fell through. The Rey's kids who want to be baptized had to ask their dad for permission, and he is super catholic and said no. Were praying for miracles.

 

I don't really remember much else, it's been such a long week. I didn't get to go to church cause Elder Ely was suuuper sick, so i stayed with him while Elder Troy took Elder Suarez to church so they could take care of all our investigators there. It was fine, i read the book, Our Heritage, watched church videos, and then read the P90X manual and now want P90X haha. It was funny.

 

Anyways, not much else to report, we have a ridiculously high failure rate lately for finding people when they say they will be home. Maybe its just the season! Either way, no worries. Nothing we can do but work our butts off!

 

Anyways, sorry that wasn't the best email, but it's all i gots!

Have a great week i love you all!

Elder Ellsworth

 

Letter from Carsten - November 28, 2011

November 28, 2011

Family,

Well happy belated thanksgiving y'all! 'Ill just answer every ones many Thanksgiving questions here, since they are all the same. It was a great day! We couldn't go out proselyting, which was good and bad, but we had lots of fun. In the morning we had a big breakfast with our zone at the district leaders apartment and this really awesome guy named Rocky. It was legit! i made super awesome pancakes and we had bacon and other assorted delicious food items. And then we played hardcore scrabble
with Rocky.

And let me just devote a whole paragraph to describing Rocky. He is my  district leaders investigator, but hes basically like the missionaries best friend. Hes huge, like super jacked and strong. And one of the nicest guys and most charismatic people i know. He was dangggg funny. He has some legal stuff to fix before he can be baptised, but he has expressed lots of interest in the church and says he wants to be Mormon someday. And he thinks the missionaries are all really awesome. He told me that i would be a really funny cop too, so i guess when i get home I'm growing out my mustache and training to be a cop. Rocky said so. Hes pretty dang awesome tho, and deserved an entire paragraph.

So that was a good start, then we had a lunch with a sister from he ward, who brought her non member son, so we taught them a lot and hopefully can teach them more. And then we had dinner with this family named the Coleman's. They are from Peru, and estan loco! Its pretty awesome. We had lots of good food and fun. It sucked a little bit looking at my watch and knowing that all the Ellsworth's were at my house right now. But that's okay, i had a good day.

As far as missionary work goes, it was a rough week. We always have lot of super fixed appointments, and 90% of them always fall through, as well as all of our mega backups. So that's a bit of a bummer but, theres nothin you can do but keep workin your tail end off! So that's what we do. Work. And we enjoy doing it. Except knocking - i still hate knocking doors. But we find lots of really prepared people that way, so we probably wont stop any time soon. But that's okay cause this week will be fantastic! we have a lot of people we are right on the edge of setting baptismal dates with, so no worries.There aren't really any investigators that are more notable than the rest right now, so it sufficeth me to say that all are doing well. Ill update when theres more exciting news.

And today was awesome, all the missionaries got together and we played some soccor, which i actually enjoy! I aint bad fer a gringo! Its pretty awesome, my favorite part is stealing the ball from people and weaving around people, mostly cause everyone expects me to suck, but for some reason i can usually get it around them LOL. So that's wayyy fun!It's nice having good guys to be super active with.

Anyways, i have a timer ticking at me, were at the library today, so i gotta go! Keep writing me lots of letters everyone! its better that way cause then i actually have time to really reply. Okay, love you all, have a good week!

love,

Elder Ellsworth

Still waiting for more pictures from Carsten - in the mean time, here's a picture of Carsten with Bella on the day she joined our family!

November 2009

The week I was named 'John' - November 21, 2011

November 21, 2011

Well, I was 'Dear Johned' this past week. Tis the life of a missionary indeed LOL.  Its a rough thing to deal with, but i believe that all things happen for a reason. I'm doing fine thanks to the scriptures and lots of prayer, so no need to worry about it. Life will go on.

  

Other news, I'm sorry i didn't write an email last week! I waited too long then got rushed outta here and didn't have the chance to write it.

Highlights were that I was prompted from El Espiritu Santo (the spirit) to turn around after being almost home at the end of the night, and found a really awesome guy named Rafael! and he basically invited himself to church, so it was pretty dang awesome.

Another day we were knocking, and there were lots of people that didn't speak Spanish and super hated on us, so we got outta there.

We were about to the car, when a lady called after us. She had chased us down, and wanted us to give her dying mother a blessing, which we did. We set up a time to meet with the daughter for tomorrow! so that might be a really good lesson. The mom was Mormon once and wanted a blessing from the elders, and we happened to be there so she chased us down! pretty cool if ya ask me. And the best story, we were driving and i got a prompting to knock a building, but ignored it. And then decided i ought to follow, so i crazy u-turned around and we knocked one door, and during the middle of this door approach another lady wanted to talk to us so Elder Troy went and talked to her while i finished talking to the lady at the door (in spanish, by myself, without Elder Troy to back me up :D! I'm getting better at Spanish -  its great) Well this other lady, turns out she was baptized 14 years ago and went inactive. She has 3 kids ages 8, 11, and 13. She's concerned for them and the bad influences around them. so she prayed for help and we showed up! Well we taught them Wednesday, and they were super awesome kids. So were gonna talk about that more and teach the plan of salvation on Wednesday. Best thing ever. And turns out Elder Troy had the same prompting to knock that building, but he just didn't say anything out loud. That was the best story.

We also met a nice old man that doesn't want to be told that for 70 years hes been in the wrong religion, so didn't let us in. but we did get to know him, and turns out he taught over in Boston (where Troy studied) and at NAU! so he thought that was cool. Then we met another guy(these were both not Latino English speakers) who was suuuuuper nice, but was convinced that Jesus was not crucified, and that the bible is mega corrupt and all these conspiracies, so he was fun to talk to as well haha. Idk there has been lots of good stuff. Lots off struggles having people be there for our appointments tho.

I'm gonna go to the Surplus store today for fun, and to have man time to further overcoming being Dear John'd - it will be sweet!

So that's about all i got for now! hope it makes up for the lack of mail last week! love you guys, have a good week.

love,

Elder John - oops, I mean Elder Ellsworth

Happy Thanksgiving EVERYONE! My companion and I have several dinner plans on Thursday, so we'll be nice and full the entire day!

No Letter from Carsten this week - November 14, 2011

Hello everyone!

This is Carsten's Mom. Carsten wasn't able to send his usuall family letter this week. I did get a quick e-mail from him and he's doing great, so no worries.

In the meantime I'll post a favorite old picture of him taken a few years ago  - waiting for more pictures of him in California. He's finding it a bit harder to take pictures, so we'll just have to be patient.



Letter from Carsten - November 7, 2011

November 7, 2011

Well, lots has happened this week, and i cant remember any of it. LOL. Hopefully it will start to come back as i write this.

Well, the first thing was that i started driving the car! so pray for some extra safety for me lol. I hate driving. Cause i hate other drivers. So i guess this is just a way the Lord is using to teach me more patience. it isn't effective yet. But that's okay.

Our car is pretty nice too, so that's fun. I only go 0-60 in 5 seconds every OTHER day ;) just kidding I'm responsible. Elder Troy probably hates my driving cause I'm suuuuuper careful.

 

 

This week we found a really nice lady named Dores who was super open to us, and is a great investigator, and we hope that things will keep working out with her! but her house is suuuuuper infested with bugs, which is disgusting, but it made for a LOT of fun laughs during that lesson. We're trying to get her to move in with our other investigator, who is trying to get someone to move into a room in her big apartment, so that would be awesome.

We could teach Alba, her son Darwin, and Dores all at the same time! triple baptism BAM. We've had lots of other fun stuff like that happen, and this Tuesday we have a breakfast appointment with our other awesome investigator Irene. Shes cooking some stuff and I'm making pancakes, and then were gonna teach her about Jesus.More specifically his gospel. But that will be way fun! I'm excited.

 

 

 

Not much else. Hugo is still blind and progressing. Our golden investigator Rosa is still in New York and didn't get baptized yesterday as planned (darn it New York) so yeah. pretty normal mission life lol.

I'm happy and healthy :) and now that this mail address mishap is figured out maybe ill start actually getting letters! its been pretty bleak lol. we will see!

That's about all i can think of for this week :) I'm still working on pictures! but its tougher that the MTC, here your actually busy and real people see you 24/7 so i cant look like a tourist!

 

 

 

Okay i love you all! have a good week :)

love,

Elder Ellsworth

Carsten and his companion are having a plant growing contest

Carsten says he's in the lead - what do you think?

Stay tuned!

Letter from Carsten - October 31, 2011

October 31, 2011 - AKA HALLOWEEN

 

Hello family!

Well, its Halloween, which just means that tonight people are too busy trick or treating to feed us or listen to us, so we don't have anything planned today. Basically we have the whole day to ourselves. Which is kinda nice. I got plenty of stuff to clean at the apartment. And later today a bunch of us missionaries are getting together in Halloween costumes and playing kickball somewhere, so that will be fun hahaha.

 

As for me, life is going great - Elder Troy and I are having a plant growing war, and i am dominating him. we bought seeds at a store last week for some flowers, and put them with some dirt in plastic water bottles we cut up, so were professional gardeners now. But mine are totally dominating! i have a bunch of big huge sprouts of my flower, and his is all tiny! but, they are different types so i guess you cant judge. but were gonna have one of our member family friends judge which plant is better in the end. I know, were pretty cool like that.

 

But planting flowers isn't all we do as missionaries! believe it or not we actually work a lot too. The last couple of days have been awesome (except yesterday, which waqs a little tougher) but we don't go knocking anymore. we just go finding. Almost without fail, every time we went knocking to find people to teach, the first door we knocked on let us in right away and we taught them awesome first lessons and got return appointments and all that jazz! so that's wayyy awesome.

 

We found tons of people this week to teach. And we found this awesome guy named Steve who was the only white guy in the neighborhood, and he ended up being suuuper interested. he quit smoking 7 days ago and is working on quitting alcohol, so we gave him a picture of Jesus to hang up to help him overcome his addictions, and he even said the closing prayer for us, he was awesome. 

 

We keep finding the BEST investigators, and they are either not in our area or speak English, and we take care of the Spanish speaking, but that's okay cause we have lots of pretty solid investigators so far. things are going well there.

 

And my Spanish is greatly improving, now I'm really working on understanding what people say to me perfectly cause if i can do that i can reply faster and not look stupid cause i have no idea what they just said. but some people here are REALLLLLY hard to understand. i don't think i would understand most of them if they were speaking English either. So that's a struggle, but ill get better at it. I'm getting a lot better at expressing better what i have to say tho, and that's really fun. so life's good, Spanish is good, the people are good, I'm resisting the temptation to be lazy, and its awesome!

 

Well, that's all i got, i love you all have a good week :)

Elder Ellsworth

 

 

Letter from Carsten - October 24, 2011

October 24, 2011

Hello family!

Hows life? Same old same old I'm sure. Thanks for all the  letters I've been getting and your emails too.

Things are going well in  California. We have had some amazing days and some pretty downer days.
But we don't let the loser days get us down! Ya just gotta keep at it,  and not give up.

We had some fun experiences this week tho, one of  which was we were getting our backpacks out of our trunk to go to an  appointment, and these two cops in a cop car pulled up right next to  us, stopping traffic behind them, and started talking to us. One of  them was a member, and had family in Mesa last name of Larson! (mom) they were cool. They first pulled up and said "hey, you guys
 got a permit to be doin what your doin" trying to intimidate us or  something. But we were like well, yeah actually we do! cause we have a  little card that proves that we are representatives of the church and  have the duty of preaching and proselyting and its all legal and  stuff, so we busted em out and showed him, it was cool. He was a  member tho so he was just messin around :)

We met plenty of cool  people too. Especially Hugo and Rosa, they both made it to church with
us this Sunday which was amazing! Hugo is temporarily blind, but we  taught him twice this week and hes super great. He wants to learn  more, and Rosa is like 76 and is getting baptised November 6th :) shes  super great too.

We found this amazing lady named Erika, who's  husband died 5 months ago, and shes having some trouble. But shes  soooo interested in the gospel, shes super golden. We taught her a  little of the first lesson and answered some questions, but the sad  thing is we wont get to keep teaching her, shes not in our area so we  had to give her to other guys in our district, sad day.

We saw Pedro for a few minutes, the supppper  intelligent catholic guy, and he actually read some in the BoM! Which  is rare lol. So he is progressing, and he had a tomato plant, so he  picked some and handed to us so we would eat them, and i HATE  tomatoes, but i sucked it up and ate the whole thing right in front of  him so he wouldn't think i was just some picky white kid. It was  disgusting. But i did it! HAHA.

On Sunday we gave 2 people  blessings, my first time. i didn't even know what to say in English, so  i failed pretty bad on my part. but ill practice.

We are working with a lot of really incredible people and I'm having a good  time. I cant wait for Wednesday, we have a bunch of awesome  appointments set up then!

Well, I'm not sure what else there is, so ill just say that i love you  and i miss ya! But I'm glad to be here serving the lord and the city of  Van Nuys :)

 Love ya all!
 Elder Ellsworth

Letter from Carsten - October 17, 2011

Elder Carsten Ellsworth

7057 Haskell Ave Apt. 222
Van Nuys, CA 91406 

October 17, 2011

Hola mi familia!

Hows life? Every body still sick of the heat of Arizona? I'm sure all is well in the desert.

How's the mission you ask? Well its fantastic! Time is so weird here, it goes really slow each day, and then all of a sudden its the next week. Which is nice, we get a lot done that way and it doesn't drag on, i guess 2 years really wont be that hard at all.

I'm still enjoying my time here a ton, and iv made lots of friends. The missionaries around here are great, we just played a bunch of basketball and stuff in the gym.

And the members are awesome too! I had my first real church meeting (my first one we just had a stake conference) So i got to meet more of the members which is great. And i am really good friends with a couple of the families, cause they feed us regularly. Gooood food too.

And we have met so may awesome investigators and potential investigators! Were finding tons of people all the time. Its not the easiest thing knocking doors, but every now and then we find some really prepared people.

Yesterday we were walking after having been shut down again (happens a lot) and this guy asked us a trick question about faith as we walked buy him, and Elder Troy answered it perfectly with an analogy and everything, so that got his attention well. and we stood there and talked to him for an hour about the first lesson, and then went and sat in front of his house with some water for another 45 minutes. He was this super intelligent catholic guy and the best part was he basically taught us about the apostasy and lack of authority and all that stuff, so he really understood a lot, and then we taught him about the restoration, and he seemed interested, so we gave him a BoM and a commitment, hes super awesome!

And theres this old lady named Rosa that we are teaching that is about to get baptized! Shes super great. My 4th day her we taught her and i didn't understand a single word she said she talked too fast for me, but we taught her the other day and i understood all of it this time! So that was really awesome, I'm getting better at understanding Spanish, no i just need to learn how to speak intelligently and be able to respond faster and i will be alright! but there is definitely a lot more improvement when your immersed which native speakers, i have no choice but to learn really fast ha ha ha.

So things are awesome. We've had a lot of great experience this week, i wish i could just call you and tell you every single one, but that's okay. The start of our week was really hard, we taught almost no one because every appointment bailed and no one would let us in and it was a little discouraging, but then Thursday to Sunday have been great, we found a lot of fantastic people and taught some really awesome lessons, i love it.

The work isn't easy, and I'm still terrified before i teach or knock, but it always works out and i am having a blast. And even though i haven't received a single letter this week from anyone (they are probably at the mission office), it was still a great week.  Anyways, i love you and i cant wait to hear back from you all.

Love,

Elder Ellsworth

Letter from Carsten - October 10, 2011

NEW ADDRESS:
Elder Carsten Ellsworth
7057 Haskell Ave Apt. 222
Van Nuys, CA 91406

October 10, 2011

Guess who is in California! I am! Its amazing here. I love missionary life. Wayyyy better than the MTC!

We get fed by members amazing Mexican food, and get to teach tons of people in
Spanish. The Spanish part is kind of terrifying, but if i ever get in
a bind my companion comes and saves the day, hes an awesome teacher.
His name is Elder Troy, and hes been here a little under a year.

We have a car, so we don't bike around places, which is good and bad. Good
because a car is suuuuuper helpful and convenient, and bad because i
don't want to get fat. And if your in a car, you don't get recognized as
missionaries as easily. But that's okay, ill get to use my awesome new
bike eventually I'm sure.

Teaching people is so much fun! We always have lots of appointments,
and its really scary, but its so exciting. I hate it when m companion
turns to me and says okay your turn, or when hes like okay you get to
knock this door.

But the more i do it the faster i will be, so its really a blessing in disguise. I'm sure i
will grow with my Spanish soon. I'm able to basically communicate well
enough. although the other day we taught this really intelligent guy named Berto,
and it was just sooooo over my head! he was wayyyy smart and i kept up as well as i
could hahaha. We didn't teach what we had prepared for him, so i was
like oh my goodness now what i don't know the words for this lesson
well enough yet! but that's okay, cause as usual, Elder Troy came to the
rescue.

Anyways, my time is almost up, but in short i love it here and
Cali is amazing! I look forward to more mail from everyone too :) Mom,
ill send my new address to you in an email, but ill write you a real
letter in a little when i get home. Oh and i would like Mackenzies
mailing address so i can write her, i have a story for her. :)

Anyways, love you all! Bye!
Elder Ellsworth

Last teacher in the MTC - Time to go to Calfornia to serve my MISSION!