Elder Ethan Ellsworth - Bangkok, Thailand

Dear Friends and Family, you'll notice Elder Ellsworth mentions he's on top of things now and caught up with his emails. That means I'm now behind in sending them. :) Thanks for being patient... with both of us. :) Hello Everybody! Alright, we're on top of things now, I am caught up! So last Monday we got up in the morning, had some cinnamon rolls and went to the Chiang Mai zoo and that was really fun. We actually just spent a lot of time in the aquarium, like A LOT of time in the aquarium. And that was kind of most of it. But we saw the only rhinoceros in Thailand, which is in Chiang Mai, which was really cool (there is some dispute as to whether this is the only rhinoceros in Thailand, but that's what the sign said). It was fun. After that we had some food and then in the evening we taught Pohn. He's just progressing way nice. We watched the Joseph Smith video with him. And he's ready to be baptized. Then we went and visited another less active family and...

Dear Family and Friends, Another installment in Ethan's mission life in Thailand. :) Hello Everybody! Monday morning for p-day was really fun! We went to this mountain called Phu Chi Fa, which means 'mountain touches the sky' in Thai and we saw the sunrise. It was way, way pretty, it's a really cool mountain that overlooks other mountains and the rest of the country of Lao. After the sunrise morning hike we went and visited a couple of temples and got some way cool pictures and enjoyed an evening meal with the Ching Rai district. It was really fun. Then our switch off began. I was with Elder Vendesi and he is a fantastic missionary. We went and visited an older lady that had been taught in the past and now she wants to learn some more. She's very talkative and we finally got out of there, eventually. :) Anyways, after that we did some inviting and taught another kid that is a way, way cute little guy. On Tuesday, we started the day with some service in the morning ...

Dear Friends and Family, Elder Ellsworth is working hard, having fun and getting caught up with his letters. :) Hello Everybody! This was a great week in Chiang Mai once again. For p-day today we went to the art museum on the South side of town, which was really fun cause there's a lot of illusionary art that we looked at and took pictures in and it was a ton of fun. We also got some food for breakfast and some time to email as well, all good stuff. After that we had planned to go and visit an RC and some of his friends but they were not available so we met a different investigator and she's pretty awesome; she has a lot of questions about what we're doing. Then we went and visited another investigator that had to go to work and then he texted us the next day and said he quit his job because he doesn't want to work anymore. Tuesday in the morning, we spent some time at the local college running around and inviting people and talking to people. It was a lot of talking i...

Hello everybody This week was another great one in Chiang Mai. For p day last week we got up and exercised and ran around the town for a little bit doing some errands. Um, it's kind of one of those errands days. Then we went and got some Mexican food with the district and had dinner together. That was pretty much the day. The we taught two new investigators along with a fire, little high school kid that we teach who is way cool. On Tuesday we went and tried to find another investigator from awhile back, couldn't find her and then we taught Getesak and his friend Chai. They're progressing very well. Getesak will be baptized on Saturday. Then we printed off  some papers for our super old dude, Saw, so that he can read the things that we teach him and it's easier on his ears. After that we had some time to go study and get packed and ready to go before we had to leave to go to Bangkok. Then we got on a bus. All Tuesday morning we were on a bus going ...

Hello, this is the week of transfers. This morning we invited all morning waiting for the Lampang elders to show up and so that we could switch out with them in our area, both the two of them. And that was, that was just super fun. So we tried to go and visit a couple of people in the morning, Elder Flake and I, but no one was available and so we kind of wandered around looking for stuff to do to be able to visit. And then I remembered this PI, this random guy we met with on a switchoff with the assistants. We went over to their house and he fed us lunch. It was raw meat, a raw meat dish that's classic to Thailand. And it was actually really good, full of blood too. So that was interesting. We went home, we got some real lunch, also visited another investigator and then we had some studies. After studies we met with a young man that we want to serve a mission and we gave him some encouragement to serve a mission and gave them a talk to read. And then we talked to a re...

Hello everybody, this week was another fun one here in Chiang Mai, Thailand. On Monday we headed over to Lamphun so we can go over and ride the elephants there, and that ended up being a very fun day. We got a lot of pictures and then Elder Chin and I went to visit an old family friend of his that actually lives near Chiang Mai, so we biked there and then had a sprint all the way back to our family home evening that night that we spent with an investigator and their family and it was fantastic. A lot of fun, a lot of food, and a lot of strong members that roast each other on different doctrines of the Gospel. So it was really funny. On Tuesday we got up and headed right over to Pawsoul, our super old investigator. He's doing really good. He just needs to remember the things that we teach is the main problem. After that we had some quick study time and then we invited and got to teach some other investigators which was also followed by some additional meeting and  stud...

PS, I forgot this super fun story. Once upon a time, Elder Ellsworth was trying to text to the APs on his bike. All of a sudden he looked up and there was a tuk tuk right in front of him. When he looked up, there was only time to grab the front brake and so he grabbed the front brake and he pulled it as hard as he could and when he did that, he did a front flip over his bike and that is the end of that story. Honestly though, it wasn't even that bad because he has had a lot worse than that before. So he wasn't too worried. It was really cool. I stopped when I was upside down in mid air and I saw the sun glinting off my bike just like it does in the movies and it was kind of cool.

Today was zone conference. In the morning we all got into big old red trucks and we headed over to some caves to go exploring for that morning as a zone and then we came back. Then we had our more spiritual side of zone conference where we talked about the gospel and we shared some testimonies and all that good stuff and sang some songs and stuff. That evening we switched off with the assistants. Elder Ignacio and I went to a member's house where we had originally planned to meet an investigator for a dinner/lesson kind of deal. Unfortunately, the investigator was not free and so he did not show up, so it was just us and the member, which was okay, I guess. Tuesday morning we got up and we were eating breakfast when we heard some pitter- patter on the roof and it turns out it just started pouring rain all day long until the evening. And so Elder Ignacio and I left to go and pick up a tent that was owned by an RC so they could bring that back to the church and on the way we ...

Hello everybody!! This week was great! 2018 is all over. In that time i have had s total of 10 companions, 5 different areas, trained 2 amazing missionaries, became fluent in a language I didn't know at all before, and talked with more people than i ever have in my life!!!! But the best part has been seeing change in those I have worked with as they pursue a life of enduring to the end until they reach the celestial kingdom. What a ride! I wouldn't trade it for anything else in the world. Monday was great. We spent the whole day looking for fabric so that Elder Chin could do a suit for himself, but it was really cool too because when we got to the suit place, it turns out the suit maker is interested in reading about the Bible and so we taught him about Daniel and then we have a return appointment to go and teach him again. Then we got haircuts and I almost crashed my bike, but then we finished out the day running around, breaking into other elders houses so that ...