June 14, 2021: SKEEEETERS

 My Alaska summer review..  Perfect temperatures! Super green!! Lots of moose and bears! Every 3 days of sun gives off 3 days of clouds. Mosquitoes ALL DAY, EVERY DAY. 

We love to go to garage sales or markets and sneakily leave pass along cards everywhere we can. It's fun! One time, I had the idea to leave a Book of Mormon on a table. So we did! When we arrived home, I realized that in the copy we left, we hid 20$ in it that a member gave us to buy dinner. #saddays! Maybe someone will find the money, read the book, and realize that the book is the key to having a joy-filled life. 

Speaking of the most important book in the whole entire world!!! Aka: The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ! Our mission had a mission tour with Elder Whiting of the seventy! He's super cool and very blunt. I learned a lot from this new spiritual giant of mine. 

The biggest thing that stood out to me was about what The Book of Mormon means to each of us individually. He had each missionary come prepared with a full page of "How The Book of Mormon Has Helped Me". He chose 2 random missionaries to read theirs out loud to the 7 zones that were attending this session. The spirit was very strong and I shed a few tears as my friend, Sister Brantley explained how The Book of Mormon helped her grow through the challenging time of the passing of her younger brother a year ago. Elder Whiting asked us, "How do we get someone to read a book? Let alone a book of scripture?! The people of today don't read regular books, they just scroll on their phones". He informed us that the only way that we can pierce culture is through being real and vulnerable with people through our experiences. Missionary work is changing so much it's kinda insane!!

Trenety! We went to her house for a Spanish party with some other young women in the ward. Her mom taught us how to make Mexican enchiladas, which were NOTHING like my mom's.  After a while, I wasn't really feeling a lesson, so I went to go talk to her mom in another room.  She told me and my companion to be models because we are "Muy Hermosa".  She loves that we are meeting with Trenety often and how she wants her to become baptized so bad! Which was shocking to me because the family usually hides when we come to their house for lessons. Anywho, I then felt prompted to get the girls into the room for a lesson. We had planned a lesson earlier that day in Alma 18 but after reading 2 verses, it seemed as if me and Hermana Holman were at loss for words. No thoughts or phrases came to mind. We looked at each other blank. I flipped to Mosiah 28 where it talks about the desires of baptism. Trenety has been invited 3 times previously to become baptized and she has said a solid no each time. But something seemed different that day as we read those scriptures. I asked her what was keeping her from baptism and she said, "actually... I think I want to get baptized!" AHHHH I was in instant tears! Everyone was so happy in the room. Trenety was beaming! Lots of prayers and fasting have gone into that girl and seeing her spiritually grow has been miraculous. Trenety is my gal.

A spanish guy walked up to me and asked me about our church. He said that he was looking for a good wife who is a member of our church. "Either a beautiful young missionary like you or another woman will do. Someone who wants to be happy and healthy with me". Me and Hermana Holman had a big laugh about him. 

I wear my nametag with Jesus Christs name on it with JOY! 

Choose JOY,

Sister Ellyn Rex

-Byron Glacier 

-Trenety Spanish Party

-Sister Cydney Maisey

-tacos w/squad

-mission tour with half the mission!