First week in California

1/4/11  I had a great time in the MTC for Christmas. Thanks for the hankerchiefs, they have come in handy since I've been out here. Not because I'm crying, but because like you said, it's rained a lot here so far and I've had a runny nose the whole time. The first day I went tracting, so on wednsday, it was raining pretty good, I got all wet, walking around. My companion is Elder Davis, from Idaho. He's a good trainer and I've learned a lot so far. I am also serving in the Ramona area, which I guess is the furthest east in the whole mission, but the ward, Ramona Oaks Ward is really nice, and way into missionary work, so that's helpful. There are a few investagators here with baptisimal dates, so that will be good to see how that works early on. This one investagator, the way she introduced herself to me was, "Hi, I'm Vanessa, and I'm getting baptized on Feb. 5th" so that was pretty funny. I also had my first exchange, but it was with one of the spanish elders. So I basically listened instead of talked the whole time. But it was funny, we were tracting and this one guy answered the door, and he spoke spanish. So he and the other elder were speaking spanish, and I was kind of zoning off, but the elder I was with said Logan, and then the man looked at me, and I thought he asked where I was from. So I told him Colorado. But it turns out he was asking what our first names were, and Logan was the elders first name, but I was thinking Logan, Utah, so I felt stupid. But now I laugh because I have a new name and it's Colorado Ellsworth. 

I'm happy to hear Christmas was good, and the whole family was there to enjoy it.  I didn't have any waffles or anything, but the food in the MTC was better than I thought it would be. Breakfast and lunch got old after awhile because it was the same thing over and over again, but dinner was always good. We had Elder Russell M. Nelson come and stay for two days, so that was cool.

I love it out here, the people are nice even though they don't want to have the truth in their lives, I still have a lot to learn, but that comes with time and experience. I'm starting to miss home a little bit, but I think I'll get over it soon.  My bike worked out just fine, but I haven't ridden it yet because we have a full time truck.

I am really glad we got to talk at the airport, cause I would have been sad if I got just the voicemail, but yeah, Heavenly Father is looking out for us. (Donna's note: Elder Ellsworth called early from an airport pay phone before flying to CA. He called Chris's business line so we didn't pick it up. Chris got the voicemail & I called the pay phone number back immediately, it was busy for several tries because all the Elders & Sisters were calling home. Finally it rang, but rang & rang, I was not going to hang up! A female voice answered, I asked if there were a group of missionaries nearby & she said, "I'm a sister missionary!". I asked her for Elder Ellsworth, but she said he was gone already, then said, wait, I see him. She ran to get him & we were able to talk for a couple of minutes. Like Kevin said, the Lord guided that experience!)