Week 63 Shelbyville KY

 So I am no longer in Louisville they moved me to Shelbyville Kentucky which is about 30 mim away. Surprisingly I'm still in an area where we are only assigned to do spanish work so I'm really happy about that because I still get to use my spanish everyday. We also live with two other missionaries who cover the English missionary work for part of the city so its been really fun living with 4 of us in the appartment.

 Right now we don't have a ton of people who we are consistently teaching so we have been talking to alot of people and trying to find any who are interested in our message.

 In this area we have a car for about half the week and we share it with another set of missionaries who also do spanish work in Shelbyville. It's been really nice to get out on the bikes and enjoy the nice spring weather when its not raining.  

With easter coming up one thing that we are doing is inviting people to church for Palm Sunday. Most, if not all of our churches will be doing a special Easter service so we are inviting everyone to come and worship with us. Then on Easter we will be having our semi anual world wide church service broadcast on Sunday morning. So with those two things we are just trying to help people understand the importance of this season and who Christ was and why He is our savior.

Well that's about it, I hope everyone has a great week. 

( since I don't really have any recent pictures here is a picture of me on the right, the person I trained in the midde and the person he trained on the left) 

Week 58

So we started last week off with an ice storm and we were stuck inside our apartments for a whole day and now we have another winter storm that brought snow and freezing rain. It's been a good week though we were able to get back in contact with a friend that we had done some English class with. Turns out he is also super interested in learning more about the church so we gave him a book of Mormon in Spanish and English so that he could work on his English. We also have been doing service for a food bank and las week we unloaded 4 full pallets worth of food and it was really cool to get to know the other people volunteering and just seeing how they just want to help those who need it. Sorry that this email isn't very long but I am still alive out here in the great commonwealth of Kentucky.

1)we were sending videos to people on facebook and in between takes elder reyez said he would catch me.... He almost did haha

2) we went ice skating for our preparation day 

I'll try to take more pictures this week 

Week 54

 Hey greetings from Kentucky. It's been pretty cold here the last couple weeks. I have officially been out for over a year on the the mission! It's crazy to think that last year I had just left home. 

I'm doing good here in Louisville there are alot of people from alot of different places that I've met. It's been really cool to help people see the blessings that come from learning about the gospel and helping them understand why Jesus is our savior and what that actually means.

 There is a person that we are working with right now who has been a member of our church for many years but he was really struggling with things like depression and anxiety. We showed him a video where one of our church leaders  talks about his experience with mental illness and how we belive that God has given us modern medicine to help bless everyone. He talks about how if you were to have apendicitis you would get a blessing and go to the hospital, he continues to talk about how mental illness is the same. 

We shared this with our friend and he said that he just felt like he had never looked at it like that before. We teach that God can help us overcome any obstacles but sometimes he puts the tools we need right in front of us and we don't use them because we don't want to be judged or look weak. We encouraged our friend to ask God for direction and when we came back the next week he said that he was now taking medication and that he felt like a burden had been lifted because he accepted that he couldn't just do it alone.

I share that story because it really helped me understand humility in a way that I hadn't thought of before. This amazing friend of ours was able to tell our Heavly Father that he needed help and was humble enough to let someone else help and allow God to work through a docter to help him start to overcome the challenge he is facing. 

That's pretty much it for this week but I hope everyone is doing good! 

Elder Ethan Amata 

OK now time for pictures 

1)I have served around elder Madsen for most of my mission and this was the last haircut that I have him because he goes home tomorrow so we took a picture 

2) My friend sent me some really good ramen for my birthday and someone here gave me this hat they said was from the Philippines 

3)we got just enough snow to make a snowman the other day 

4)we did some service with some other missionaries at a food bank

 

5)us in a lesson with our friend Tony who is super cool 

6)my mom isn't gonna like this one hahaha but they had a really good deal on monsters at the gas station and I can't pass up a good deal 

7)The Spanish speaking missionaries of Louisville 

                                 

                                                     

 I just wanted to wish everyone a merry Christmas. This is my first Christmas away from home and it was different for sure. 

We were invited over to have Christmas breakfast with a couple who serve as  missionaries that help coordinate all the mission vehicles. 

Then we got to talk to our families and I was able to see that they were enjoying the nice California weather lol. It was nice to be able to see and talk to everyone and still feel like part of the family even though I wasn't able to be there in person. 

Things have started to slow down a little bit but we are still teaching people. We are also doing english classes with some people and that has been really cool to help them learn because I can understand the struggle of learning a new language.

 Also thank you for all the birthday wishes it does feel strange to be 20. 

I've almost been out for a whole year and it's crazy to think all that has happened in the time that i've been out. Most of it doesn't even feel real because things went a little crazy soon after I left in January. 

All I know is that through it all God has a plan and he knows me personally. When it comes to Christmas I love how even if you don't really celebrate the birth of Christ as the focus of Christmas you cannot deny that at the very least He is the cause for a holiday that makes people happy and that brings family together. 

I hope that everyone has a great Christmas and that we can see the change that the holliday has on those around us.

Elder Ethan Amata

For the pictures it's just some random things and some food lol.

Happy Thanksgiving

 Happy Thanksgiving!

This week was a little slow but we got to have 2 Thanksgiving dinners so that was fun and I got absolutely stuffed lol. One was with our mission president who is a really cool guy from Idaho so we sat at different tables and talked and had a good time. The other one was with a family in the congregation who invited us over later in the evening. 

Covid cases are going up in Kentucky so it's possible that we have to go back into shelter in place but for now we are still able to safely visit people. Honestly the thought of going back to shelter in place scares me a little because I love getting to talk to people face to face but all I know is that whatever is in store has a purpose. 

There's a scripture in the book of Mormon that is one of my favorites, that says 

"But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things." 2 nephi 2 :24 

So I am trying to have this scripture be the motto or theme or something like that for my mission because I definitely didn't expect covid when I signed up for a mission but I did sign up to do what God wants and needs me to do so I guess there's probably something that can be learned from all this. Have a good week .

-Elder Amata 

Sorry this is the only picture I took this week but let me tell you, that cat was fluffy 

 Hey so things are getting interesting lol. 

So I got moved to Louisville and the name of our area is Ola which means wave so that's kinda cool. One thing that isn't very fun is that I tested positive for covid 19 but my symptoms were pretty much the same as a normal flu so cough sore throat body aches and stuff like that so we are currently under quarantine until further notice which is not super fun but there's not much that I can do about that. So we do a lot of studying and a lot of playing guitar and piano and stuff like that when we run out of people to call. Other than that its pretty chill for now.

There was something I read the other day that kinda put me in my place because I didn't have the best attitude about the whole quarantine thing.

 Its in Romans 5 verses 3-5

"3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."

And basically this got me thinking about how something like true patience is something that would be really nice to have especially with all of this covid stuff and being on the other side of the country away from friends and family and not being able to go out of my apartment. However in this scripture it tells us that when it comes to patience that we gain it through trials that test our patience. So I'm just trying to take this quarantine as an opportunity to be tried and tested. That also means that the more trials of patience that we go through the better we will be equipped to handle future situations. So to sum this all up I need to look at this trail kinda like cardio... It kinda sucks in the moment but every time you do cardio it makes future cardio suck a little less... and its supposed to be good for you or something like that but i think that's just a myth lol.

Hope everyone has a great week or two depending on when I email again haha. If you want to send me anything you can send it to      

1325 Eastern Parkway

Louisville, Kentucky 40204

Week 41

 Hey this is going to be kind of a short email but this week was great.

We have been able to talk to alot of people as we are out and about and I'm super grateful that we are still able to go to church and that we are still able to have lessons with people in their houses. 

We also have had the opportunity to do a lot of service for members. We helped someone set up a huge tent in their backyard and we helped someone else move.

Today on our prep day we were able to go and take a tour of Keeneland race track where they do horse races and things like that and it was really cool. 

Hope everyone has a great week!