Meet Wellis

Hello loves!

Sister Ellis, my new companera, arrived on Wednesday and life has been a happy, exhausting whirlwind ever since. She's phenomenal, of course (Let's be honest, God doesn't give me anything less for my companions--especially the new ones), and it's just oh-so-perfectly right that we're together at this time in this place.  Mar Vista needs this sister...and honestly, so did I. 

And for those of you who didn't make the connection to the subject line/are maybe slightly less familiar with the concept of celebrity couple names:  Wells + Ellis = Wellis.  Win!  Though obviously we still call each other "Sister" as anything else would be contrary to the highest standards of missionary conduct as outlined in the white handbook. No se preocupe, friends.  Exact obedience brings miracles and you better believe we know it. 

So, here's why I think she's great: 

1) She's naturally gorgeous and crazy low maintenance. 20 minutes to get fully ready. Pts 2-7 keep me from hating her.

2) She loves eating & exercise. We are soul mates. 

3) She plays the harp! What?? So cool.

4) She played soccer in high school. 

5) She went to U of Arizona for a semester, and UVU for another semester. (aka 

6) She is so dedicated! Her spanish has already improved muchisimo and we're in an English area.

7) She is patient and loving with her mess of a trainer who talks her ear off on a regular basis.

8) She is STRONG. She just has this amazing testimony. Her heart and her testimony have been so uniquely shaped...and she's here to share it. I have truly come to adore her, friends. The list will continue onward as the transfer moves forward.

So, here's the area update:  We're seeing milagros on every corner, of course, as is to be expected with the fiery new missionaries. 

Example: (one of many...time limits) 

Yesterday, we're sitting in the last hour of church (which both **** and ***** came to! Woot! We're still working on ***. He's got to figure out his girlfriend stuff. But we're teaching him about Faith on Saturday using 1 Ne 5:1-3. Think story of Lehi and his amazing wife, Sariah. Think about how her faith was tried and worn down...think of how easy it was for her to misunderstand and question. Think about how Lehi moved forward anyway, and how joyous miracles ensued. Okay, this parenthenical statement went a little long. Long story short, *** will be at church next week. I just know it!)...

So...anyway...we're sitting in the last hour of church and I'm getting a little nervous. Because, you see, over the course of Sacrament Meeting and Relief Society, all of our plans for the next 2 hours in our area more or less fell through. We still had a few back-ups, but not enough to hold us down. So, I'm tempted to start asking other members if we can come do a quick Active Member Training/Family Mission Plan Follow-up visit with them (yeah, our ward mission plan is that good)...but then I'm like, "Well, maybe we should just come back to the chapel and finish weekly planning once and for all" (Don't judge. 1st week for a new VC missionary=madness/not finishing weekly planning until Sunday night)...and then I remember what president told us in our training on how to train new missionaries.  "There will be times when you're not sure what to do, and a decision will need to be made. When in doubt, look upward."  

So, I said I little prayer. And then decided that we needed to trust the spiritual guidance we received in our planning session the night before. So, we walked over to the nearby apartments and started working on our backup plans. No answers...we start talking about how Heavenly Father put us here for a reason, and that as obedient missionaries who do their best to follow the spirit, you can literally never be in the "wrong place"...right after this conversation, as we're walking to our last less active's door, we meet _______ (insert Chinese characters here), a 50-something-yr-old Chinese man...who stops us, points to our tags, and then across the street to where the church building is located. We nod and smile and try to explain in a mix of sign language and...well, sign language...b/c I speak NO CHINESE.  Long story short, he writes down his name and his info for us and we give it to the new Chinese elders in the area and they're on their way to visit him soon! Joy! 

...that was Miracle 1. 

Miracle 2 happened 10 minutes later as we're leaving the complex. The 1st person we see stops us and asks us what church we're from and if he can learn more about the Book of Mormon. He spoke Spanglish, so it was this perfect opportunity for my compa to practice her spanish as she explained the basics of our belief...and then we invited him to read and pray about it...and then we invited him to be baptized. And he said yes. And THEN we invited him to go see a baptism at the church next door. Because it just happened to be started 5 minutes. So, he went. And then we went back to the VC, where we'll be calling him to follow up and sending missionaries to his home in Santa Barbara.

...and then like 3 more people we met told us they would try to stop by church next week. It was a miracle. 

Moral of the story:  When in doubt, look upward, then outward. Then move forward with Faith. God loves all of His children. 

Love ya'll a ton! I'm sending a pic of Sis Ellis and I...hopefully. And some pics of a pig we saw in the street as well as us with the ****** fam (Ward mission leader).  

More to come later on. 

Love you all! Praying for you!

-Sister Wells