May 7th

Hello Family! Can you already believe I'm halfway through my time here at the MTC? Time is totally weird here, the first few days seemed like eternities, the last week flew by, but it still feels like I've been here a month. I can't imagine how it would be having to be here for 3 months. This last week was full of really good learning experiences and awesome spiritual moments. Yesterday we had Mission Conference and got to hear from the whole MTC presidency and a few others. President Brown did his whole talk on having faith in Jesus Christ and it was seriously INCREDIBLE. I wrote like 3 pages of notes. Then we had a devotional by Mark Lusvardi who is the Director of Public Programs for the missionary department in Salt Lake. He talked about developing and having Divine Love and it was also mind-blowing. I'll send you more details on those in a letter since email time is so much shorter than letter time. So we got out travel plans this week! Sister LaRue and I are leaving at 11am on Tuesday the 15th and we'll get to Washington at 12:30 Pacific time. We're flying with 5 elders, but we don't know who they are. Sister Bonner is the only sister in her travel group to Canada, but she is flying with 18 elders!!! Totally crazy. She has to be at the travel office at 3am #almostnotworthit... haha, she flies from SLC to DFW to Toronto. Long day of travel for her. I do not envy it. I'll talk my 2 1/2 hour flight with no connections. We spent a lot of time this week talking about how we're meant to teach people and not just lessons and how we need to work on listening as well as teaching. It really is crazy how much we start to care about the people we teach here and how much we want them to accept our message. Many times this week there has been talk about how we have been called to specific places for a specific reason and for specific people. Brother Lusvardi talked about that in his message to us and how as we just go out and love those we serve that that love will resonate with them and they'll be able to feel the spirit of why we're there. It really made me grateful to be a missionary because that's what I want to do. I want to meet those people that are waiting for that message and I want to share it will them. Wow, just so amazing. I love y'all SO SO much and thank you again for all the letters, emails and love. Sad news Mom, since I'll be in the MTC on Mother's day I won't be able to call because there are like 2500 missionaries and 4 phones. BUT we're hopefully going to be able to call at the airport. I'll keep you posted on that next week. Love, Sister Ellingson PS- I'm so happy to hear that the trip to Canada went so well and that you got to see so many people! I bet that was so much fun for you guys. I'm also really happy to hear that Mac got that NAIT interview and I'm keeping him in prayers until he finds out the results. PPS- I got your package of cookies and treats! It seriously made me so happy. There's an elder from BC in a district we see all the time and he was very jealous of my candy. Like I mentioned in my letter though, Sister LaRue and I and one of our elders decided to give up treats and see who can go the longest so I had to eat my cookies and candy fast. We've been going for like 4 days now and I have not eaten any treats. We'll see how long my self-control lasts. PPPS- shout out to Monica Jackson, Alex Pehrson and Meggie Cheney for the awesome Dear Elder Letters this week! They totally made my day! I'm working on replies later this afternoon :D OH! Also, shout out to Rayo Budge for randomly walking to the temple at the same time I was there! So glad I got to see you. PPPPS- I forgot to give you guys my scripture for my plaque! If you could use Alma 26:12 that would be awesome :]