Eat a Fish Sandwich, Drink some Ginger Beer, and Be Merry ;)

Island life with a dash of that British culture with the telephone things

Aloha Family a me Friends :) 

Still so surreal to me that it is 2019. Weird stuff honestly. Weird to think about a year ago I was at home. So much has happened and it's certainly been the adventure of a life time. Life is far too short to be wasting time. 

It seems as though everyone we were talking to were either going to the hospital or knew of someone going to the hospital. 

Cool little alleys in town

On Thursday one of our members, Sister A., her mom went to the hospital because of a severe cause of pneumonia (the first thing that I thought was oh no my dog passed away from pneumonia). On Saturday night our appointment fell through and we had just hiked up to finish this hill that we started knocking a few weeks back. We knocked a couple of doors and with no success, Sister Howells asked me: "Is there any other way we could more effectively be using our time?". I paused for a moment and was like: "We should go see Sister Adams and her mom in the hospital". 

Just 15 minutes later we were in the hospital with Sister A. (who looked like a walking zombie she was soo tired) and her frail, pale, 90 year old mother who was a bit delusional and talking up a storm trying to figure out where she was. Sister Howells, myself, Sister A., and her son's girlfriend sung one of the few songs that we can sing without sounding terrible..."Come Follow Me". It was one of the most sweetest moments I've ever had. As we sung, Sister A.ʻs mother (who isnt a member btw) hummed along and tried to move her foot. After we sung, it was as though a sense of peace just came over her. As we departed with Sister A., we reassured her that next week we could always come over and just watch over her and she could get some rest.  

The next morning, Sunday at 7:45am, Sister Adam's mother passed away. Sister A. was 15 minutes too late to getting to the hospital. Life comes at you quick. 

Life is far too short. We are given so many different choices. Good choices in fact. It isn't always just good and bad or black and white. Often times, the choices in front of us are good, better, and best. But how can we possibly figure out what the best decision is? Yes there are actually several paths that lead to happiness and that will help us to fulfill our purpose(s) here on earth. But I know that as we follow the promptings of the spirit that we will be led to the "best". When we are living worthily we will have the right to the spirit constantly. We won't have to worry if our impression is from God or not. We will know with a surety that God is speaking to us. As John 16:13 states: "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come". And truly this truth will set you free.

Looks are deceiving. We arenʻt actually this tan ha ha ha 

Well. Life is short (and this email isnt lol sorry) and that is why we are meant to be happy. Meant to have joy. Meant to rejoice in the gospel  and really just...

Eat one or two (or tree) fish sandwiches, drink some ginger beer, and be merry. Ha ha ha...ok love you all! 

Randoms:

1) Grateful for the Tesucher family for swinging by our apartment at 6am last week to pick up our letters to send them from the states. Yay for President haha

2) Placed our miracle man Daniel (from Brazil) on baptismal date! We brought a member along and after she was like "Never have I ever been in a lesson where the person understands everything and is so focused". So great. Exciting stuff happening!

3) Truly have seen the blessings from working and loving the members here. We got several member referrals and its just been great :)

4) Ask and ye shall receive. A few weeks ago we made friends with this lady. Sister Howells and I were talking about how much we wanted this fancy pink sand jewlry from Bermuda. This lady took us out to lunch and turns out she owns one of the big jewlry stores on the island and was like "i've actually been thinking about giving you two some!". The next day we were in the supermarket and Sister Howells really really wanted something sweet. I persuaded her not to. Then an hour later we are meeting with our little Indian chef and he pulls out this fancy chocolate cake and is like "this for you two!". Haha literally. Ask and ye shall receive.

5) The weather here rains off and on. We were out one night with no umbrella and it started to rain for a few minutes. This man was doing something in his car and was like "do you want an umbrella" and we were like "no we are ok" and he was like "well you are getting one!". He comes running over with this super fancy umbrella. It was so kind :') 

6) Had two hour church and I've never seen so many people in the Bermuda Branch building before. It was so great! 

7) We did our weekly planning on the beach one day and watched some tourist ride some horses on the shore of the water. It was quite majestic. Haha

One of the many fish sandwiches I've had. Actually got this one for free 

Sick art in one of the museums. Couldn't quite get the whole room. But it was real cool. 

View from the Royal Navy Dockyard last monday!

Me ke aloha,

Sister Ellis

Believe, Love, Do