Elder Ethan Ellsworth - Bangkok, Thailand

Hello everybody, In answer to everyone's question, yes I am excited out of my mind, and super nervous, and it's basically a huge roller coaster this whole last week, but it's good stuff!! So Tuesday , we had Weatherford T Clayton come and speak to us. It was good stuff. He talked about the BOM and how important it is in missionary work. But it was his wife's talk that I like the most. She talked about how the Savior took two fishes and five loaves of bread and made it enough to feed 5,000 plus people. She then related it to missionary work, and how we have a small offering that we offer to the Lord and as long as we rely on him, and follow Him, he makes more of it that we ever could on our own. Wednesday , we had some sick elders in our district, and that kind of continued throughout the week. People had to miss class and rest, so that was no bueno. But by the turn of the weekend, we were all well enough to get to attend class and all that good stuff. This week was ...

Hello everybody!!! This week has been real crazy for sure!! Here in the MTC, days feel like years, and weeks feel like hours. It's an interesting concept for sure, but we just keep trucking forward! Thailand, here we come!! Last Tuesday , our devotional was alot about prayer. He bore powerful testimony on why prayer is so important, and how it can help us so much. It was incredible. Wednesday began yet another week in the MTC. We studied, and studied, and studied some more. Are you sensing a theme here? Anyways, we had a great lesson too, on prayer, and how important it is. It's so cool to think about how much we can share in Thai now, and how the spirit can really bear witness of what you say even when you're not sure what is all coming out of your mouth. Also, we got 27 new elders in our zone, and 2 new sisters, so we now have 80 some odd missionaries in our zone. It makes for a crowded sacrament meeting, but its good stuff. All the elders are all on the top floor of...

Hello Everybody!! Holy cow this week has gone by faster than all of last month!! All of the elders here are ready to just get out of here and head out to Thailand already! Don't get me wrong, the MTC is great, but we all can only take so much of it!!! Last Tuesday , we had a devo with Elder Sitati from the seventy. He was awesome. He talked about charity and how we can best trust in the Lord as we go forth to serve. Wednesday came, and it was business as usual. Eat, class, study sleep, repeat. I also led tours on Wednesday , and saw no one I knew, but met a couple of Elders that are headed to the Kennewick mission, so that was cool. Thursday , our teacher who is actually a native of Thailand went back home to be with her family. We were all disappointed to see her go, but can't wait to see her again hopefully in the next couple of months. She is such an amazing teacher, and really helped us out sooo much. Friday , we had an interesting language activity where we closed ou...

Hello everybody!!! This week has been great. I would totally say its been another week in paradise, but ya know, I'm still in the MTC, and have yet to be in Thailand, so I'll save that for later. Anyways, nothing terribly exciting happened in the last half of last week, just class, study and more class. But there are some golden nuggets I've got. Elder McDonald and I have had the best week of lessons since our arrival at the MTC. It's been soo cool to see how we've grown together, and how well we work together. We've received multiple compliments on how well we teach together over the past little bit. On Wednesday , we had a lesson planned out to discuss faith and repentance. When we got to the lesson, our investigator had all kinds of questions about the plan of salvation, and specifically the three kingdoms of glory, so we put aside what we were going to teach, and answered all of her questions. It was so cool. I love lessons where they have lots of questions...

Hello everybody!! One week down, like 100 more to go, but who's counting right?? So this week was pretty good, as are most of the weeks at the MTC, but not easy. The language is no easier to learn, but we are progressing for sure, and have given like 15 lessons in total, 100% in Thai, so that is pretty incredible. I really enjoy it here. The spirit is soo strong. At devo last Tuesday evening, we had an emeritus general authority come to speak to us about how to become better missionaries, and he got everyone excited and motivated to become better. His name is Don R Clark, and he sure lit a fire underneath our pants to get us ready to be out in the field about the work of the Lord. Wednesday last week, Elders Jorgenson and Byers and I got up early to work out in the fitness center which was great. We had planned on doing that the rest of the week, but then we were exhausted for the rest of the week just because it's been so busy and so long. Most of the day...

Hello everybody!! Week three is here, and all the days and weeks are starting to blend together. Time is finally starting to speed up, and I am excited to get to Thailand, as much fun as it is here in the MTC. Last weeks devo was on spiritual gifts, or mostly anyway. Elder Koelliker jumped around alot in his talk. But he discussed how to be effective missionaries, and how to use the talents we have to bring people to Christ. He discussed at length spiritual gifts and encouraged us to find ours and to read D&C 88 in the next week. I took that advice and made it part of my personal study this week and it was sooo worth it. It's a great section. So awesome. One of my favorite verses is 73 which says simply "Behold I will hasten my work in its time." This week it really hit me that that is what I'm apart of and how quickly the work really is moving, and how word is being spread across the whole world. Every day, I meet someone here that is going to a differe...

Hello everybody! This week has sure been great! Of course you can't go wrong when you're in the MTC. To be perfectly honest, there isn't much to report on this week, it's pretty much the same as last week, and every other day I've been here. We get up, study, go to class, eat and go to sleep, in different orders different days. So basically pday and Sunday is the best because it breaks up the rut of Groundhog day at the MTC haha. Here are some experiences at the MTC from this week. Last Tuesday, we had an excellent devo about faith and how to keep it in a world that is growing more and more doubting, and cynical. It was really instructive. On Wednesday, Elder McDonald and I had a rough lesson. We couldn't understand what our investigator Phii Faa was saying and we didn't have the spirit with us and that was pretty sad. Having the spirit with you is soooo important when you are teaching lessons. Thursday's lesson was much better, the s...

Saweedii khab khrobbhrua l3? phxan, Life here at the MTC is great!! I've really enjoyed my time here so far. It's definitely been one of the longest weeks of my life, if not the longest, but pretty awesome as well. So I got in the classroom Wednesday and the teacher only spoke Thai for about the first 2 hours. My district used the translations on the board to some of the words he used, and got really good at charades. Interpretive dance is a good way to communicate when you have no idea how to speak the language. There was lots of hand motions going on. Thursday was the longest ever. Lots of class time, and studying. It's good though. We literally have a full time job (40+ hours a week literally) studying the language. It's good though, we need all the help we can get haha. But the gift of tongues is soooo real. We've taught 3 lessons to an investigator already and we've been exposed to the language for a solid 5 days. How awesome is that?? The...