Hey all!
Wow! another great week has passed by! Elder Larsen and I have been working very hard and have seen many mircales from the Lord! I'm also very excited for this week too in that we can witness many more mircales from the Lord.
So with our investigators this week. We were actually suppose to have a baptism this next sunday on Mother's day. Her name is Rosa Estrada. She is about your age actually. she lives in an apartment complex which is pretty much inhabited by the entire Estrada family. Everytime we come over it's a party because they love the missionaries and there are a ton of little kids who like to climb on us and play. And they live about twenty feet from each other so they are always together all the time. they are a part member family. Rosa's brother was the first convert to the church. Then followed his little sister Leuticia. So there kids are all members. So we are working on getting the rest of the family baptized. This includes Rosa and her family, and Rosa's parents. Rosa has a strong testimony of the gospel. She has been taught by the missionaries for over two years now and we finally got her to commit to a date. Which was a miracle in it self. We started teaching her all of the commandments that she has to keep in order for her to be baptized, she has been keeping those committments. So Elder Larsen and I got really excited. But then Sunday rolled around. And she didn't come to church. Earlier this week we figured out that she has been going to see her oldest son who is in prison on sunday mornings when we have church. It's a predicament. Cause it's good that she wants to see her son, but she needs to go to church in order to get baptized. She committed to come for sure this week, she wants to get baptized bad. So I belive she will.
So with Michelle it was a very interesting week. We started to go over the commandments with her too. She has a lot of problems with them so we started to teach them to her so that way we can get her prepped to be baptized on the 27th. One night we were at her house eathing dinner (cause she lives with her mom too) and then we started teaching her about the ten commandments. We committed to obey them, then right after she started to ball. Tears just streaming down her face. Her Eyes got really red. and she started to complain about her life again. about how she doesn't have a job, and she has no money to help out her four kids (she's 25 yrs old). and that there were more problems that we didn't know about that were going on. I can remember my heart pounding, and I had a thought in my head that we needed to give her a blessing. So we proceeded to do so. I was the one taht gave the actual blessing. Let me tell you, I have only given two blessings in my life, and I have only been apart of a blessing a handful of times. But Let me testify to you that the priesthood is real, because I felt it touch her spirit as I was giving her a blessing of comfort. There is nothing like a priesthood blessing that brings in the spirit of the Lord.
So remember that Golden investigator Miguel? So last sunday we got a text from him saying that he was going to be gone all week. We thought to ourselves that we were losing him. That he was just saying that because someone had scared him and that he really didn't want to talk to the missionaries anymore. But He called us last night right when he got home and wanted to talk to us. He's a very interesting person. Normally 20 year olds don't really think about the sins they have, but he is very worried and feels very dark. We taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ and told him that it's through baptism and making those covenants that we can be clean again. WE are going to be teaching him a lot this week and i'm very excited to see him progress.
So right before miguel called we went to a door that we had contacted earlier and we taught him the first lesson in preach my gospel. His name is Carlos. and i thought he was just being nice to us because he had kinda kicked us off of his porch before, but we went back to teach him and he was like "what is the process of baptism?" I looked at Elder Larsen thinking "are you serious?" haha we gave him a book of mormon and told him we would come back to teach him.
Okay you wanna know about my area/apartment/everything else? so I'm gonna give ya a brief description and i have to get off soon. So my area is La Habra and Brea California. The majority of the people that live here are Latinos. So we have a lot of opportunities to teach. A lot of the area is a bunch of small apartment complexes that cover a lot of the area. In fact I live in a small apartment complex. we have a one bedroom apartment that has one sink, bathroom, and one bedroom. the walls are painted white and we have some pictures of Christ up on the walls. My bed is a little high because it's a bunk bed that got spilt apart. I'ts a very mirrory apartment. In the bedroom there are two sliding door closets. we use one for supplies and the other for our clothes, but they both have reflecting mirrors that are on the doors. plus the bathroom is apart of our bedroom. So there are mirrors everywhere. haha. All of are neighbors are latino. And our nextdoor neighbor is what you call a nutjob. My first day i got here he was completely drunk and yelling at me and i got a little scared. haha but none the less i'm good now. I just laugh whenever I see him, which isn't that often. The weather has been pretty hot. but there is usually a nice calm breeze going on so that is great. Oh and there are seven elven's and donuts shops everywhere!! but the best place is panderia. where they sell "pan dulce" or sweet bread. I'ts like a bakery but a pastery place too. and it's cheap so we love going there. So good!!
The members here are awesome. They feed us good. We usually are fed dinner and we have to make our own breakfast and lunch. But Elder Larsen likes to cook so he cooks for the both of us everyday. So it's been nice with food. I'm not suffering yet with that! It's funny because most of them can speak English too and they know i'm the new guy so they let me get away with speaking English. which is bad cause Spanish has been really really frustrating for me this week. We try to speak only spanish outside the apartment but i usually ended up getting mad and spoke only english. haha but i'm trying to get better everday.
Okay so I will be calling home on Sunday. I will be calling you guys at anywhere from 3 to 5 California time. I know that will be interfering with your family actuiveis so If i cant reach ya at home i'll call Dad's cell phone. So have it ready okay? I'm very excited to hear your voices. I don't know when you got the last letter I wrote home, but i wrote one already and i'm going to respond to your email in mail. but don't be suprised if i get choked up a little. I love you guys and I am still trying to get over my homesickness.
Well that is my week in a nutshell!! I'll be talking to you guys in a while! Les Amo Mucho!!!
Elder Dallin M. Ollerton
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