Monday, July 30, 2012

Recent Photos

 This must be an overlook of the Anaheim area.
 Dallin and his trainer Elder Larsen
 Dallin and Elder Excell
 Dallin's legs with marks from dog attack.
 Daniel's Baptism
 P-Day fun.  Elder Larsen, Excell, Farnsworth
Elder Ollerton hitting the links.

Letter from July 30, 2012


Hey everyone!
It was another very interesting week here in Anaheim California. A lot of great adventures and a lot of memories made.

Yesterday we had the confirmation of Daniel. It went so great. Elder Excell was the one that did the confirmation. After we ended the blessing he looked at me and said "I have that warm feeling again!" it was just a testimony to me that the Holy Ghost is real. Will you pray for his great grandfather? We had to give him a blessing the other day because he was sick. Hope he gets well enough to get back to Mexico.

So last p-day we were out and teaching. We were about to call it quits for the day when I got a call from sister Bowen. She asked me what had happened about the dog bite and I explained to her what had happened. She advised me to go and talk to the owners. I did so and they said the dog had all of the shots, but they had no document to show me that it was actually done. So sister Bowen told me to go to the emergency room to get it checked out in case there was any sign of me needing care. So that night we got to the hospital in Orange called St. Joseph. We went in and the ER doc got me checked in. He was asking me questions about where I was from and everything, I was guessing that he had dealt with elders before. Anyway I got checked in. we waited, we waited, and we waited. They finally brought me back and took my vitals. They sent me to a room where I waited, and waited, and waited. Finally a doctor came in and he told me that it looked like it was healing fine and I wouldn’t have to worry. Just to be sure they gave me a tetanus shot. Then they sent me home. We got home at about one thirty that morning, and then we slept for a few hours, and got back up and went into our regular routine. It was a fantastic night. Sister Bowen gave me another call and I ended up calling animal control and filed another report. So everything should be okay. I just now have a small fear of dogs. It was so funny because the other day I had another Chihuahua come at me and tried to bite me. Ha-ha but thankfully it was on a leash and it couldn't get me. So we are all good there.

This week has been a very hard week for our area. We taught a lot of people who had never heard the gospel before, which is good. The problem is that we don't have anyone who is progressing to the waters of baptism. We don't have anyone with a baptismal date, which is very unusual to have out here in the field. Nobody we have invited has accepted to be baptized. I don't know why that is. We just maybe aren’t' doing the best we can, or it could be the way we teach and invite, I don't know. But we are currently trying to work with a guy name Reuben. He actually had been with the missionaries in the past. He loves church. He went to an English ward before. We taught him about the restoration and he accepted to be baptized when he knows that the church is true. We have also gotten that same answer with a few of our other investigators. We just haven’t been able to find them since. But we are still working hard.

So my father asked me about the riots that have been going on in Anaheim and if I knew anything about them. Oh let me tell you I know all about them. On Tuesday night we were on our way to get a member to go to an appointment that we had. We were driving down this main road where we saw a bunch of police cars with their lights on driving. We pulled over and I counted close to twenty police cars from about five different cities drive down the road. We were just like "what the heck" we parked in a parking lot of an insurance agency and walked to the member’s home. We got him and walked outside and saw a huge crowd of people walking down the sidewalk and the middle of the street. A lot of them had bandanas around their faces and had flags, signs, and all kinds of stuff. We had a lady tell us "you better get out of here. They are throwing stuff" we looked back and sure enough they were throwing rocks, their flags, and whatever they could at cop cars as they were driving by. Some of the stuff landed by us as we were standing there. Then they all started coming our way. They probably thought we were cops or something. We then ran for our car and got the heck out of there. After that we were driving home where we saw a dumpster out in the middle of the street and it was smoking. Apparently they pushed dumpsters out and lit them on fire too. It has been crazy. We even ran into them again when we were with the other elders going to dinner yesterday. They asked us to join them and I was like why? Ha-ha it’s been crazy. But we have been protected from all of the riots and everything. So mom.... don’t worry okay? With faith the Lord will protect His missionaries.

I also went on exchanges with Elder Farnsworth this week. He is actually companions with Elder Larsen right now. It was so much fun. We stayed up a little late talking about the MTC memories, as I would read from my journal. We also went out and worked. It was so neat to see it. Because we were companions in the MTC. And we were working together out in the field. It was so crazy to see the growth we had made since the MTC. It was a great experience, and I actually learned a lot from him.

That is basically all that is happened this week! It’s been a crazy one. I thank you for all of your support. Will you please pray for our area and that we may be able to help others start to progress to baptism? We are struggling right now and could really use it. Love you all!! Thanks again!

Elder Dallin M. Ollerton

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Elder Ollerton and Elder Excell Baptism

 Elder Ollerton and Elder Excell.  This nine year old was baptized by his Great grandfather who was visiting from Mexico.

Letter from July 23, 2012 (Sorry its late; we were at Lake Powell)

Hey everyone!!

It has been another crazy week out here in Anaheim California. It has
been super hot out here. (or it feels like it at least) So this week
we had a baptism! Yahoo! It was for Daniel. He is nine year old nad is
the son of a less active member, he missed being baptized while he was
eight. so he had to be taught by the missionaries. He had a baptismal
date for yesterday when i got here, but he hadn't been taught anything
at all. Which really worried me, but we were able to go over to his
house everyday and teach him all that he needed to know in order to be
baptzed. He was so funny. We did a lot of object lessons. like rocket
faith. where you get an empty tea bag (bigaloe is the brand i think,
it's herbal haha) and you stand it on ones hand. you light the  top of
it on fire and at the end when it's about to burn your hand, it lifts
off and it flies. He loved that one. His mom not so much. haha and we
did other fun object lessons too. At times he would start to fall
asleep. I would ask him if he was getting bored of me, but he was jsut
tired. I guess he was preparting to do five different dances at his
cousins Quincenera (sp). and he was practicing for like five hours a
day. crazy, but we had the interview and he passed with flying colors.
The cool part about this baptism was that his great grandfather was
visiting from Mexico, and he performed the ordinance yesterday. So
cool huh? not very often you see a great grandpa baptize his great
grandson. it was a really neat experience. Super stressful day, but in
the end he was baptized and i was so dang proud of him. Waht another
miracle!!

So other than that we haven't really had much success in finding
people who are willing to listen to us. haha one day (friday?) All of
our appointments fell through, none of our backups were home, so we
just went everywhere we could go to find somebody to teach. We went to
the apartment of a man we contacted to learn that he really didn't
live there, but we taught him lesson one and he was very receptive. IN
the end we gave him a Book of Mormon and asked him to pray to end our
lesson (we always do taht). He jsut stared at the ground for a minute.
looked at us and gave us the book of mormon back. We were so confused
because we thought he was totally into it. but he wasn't. We drove
over to another area to see someone. WE got out and started to walk to
the home, As we were walking I saw a small dog on the sidewalk coming
towards us. It started to bark at us like all dogs do. but then all of
a sudden I saw it coming straight towards me. It started to run, then
It jumped at me and started to attack me. The dog jsut was attacking
me for like thirty seconds. just sitting there trying to eat me alive.
The owner was a kid and all he was doing was yelling at the dog to
stop. I was freaking out too. i finally got the thing off of me and
kept going. We tried to teach a lady but she didn't accept. after I
felt pain on my leg and pulled up my pants and sure enough, there was
dog bites on my leg. my leg was bleeding too. YOu could only notice
about two bites where it got me really good. i was in shock. hahaha
but i'm still alive. i've cleaned it out and all. NOw i have a small
fear of dogs out here. haha

So yeah...we are really in finding mode still, nobody really seems to
be interested. So i'm giong to be pulling the scientist that's in me
and start experimenting different ways of talking to people and
teaching. We have found some really cool people. LIke a lady who went
to our building to meet someone and we ended finding out that she had
been through a lot, cancer and all, but she knew that it was God that
helped her out. we taught her right here and committed her to be
baptized. we jsut need to find her again. we've had a real problem
with that. Pray that we find her eh?

Also we have been having a really hard time finding another
investigator who we have been teaching that wants to be baptized. His
name is miguel. He told us that he has been wanting to come to chruch
with us these past two weeks, but we haven't been able to find him in
that week's time. So we are really worried that we will lose him. He's
already reading in the Book of mormon and everything on his own. So we
have to find him. Will you pray for him? and that we can find him too?
WE really need all the help we can get.

Also we are teaching a 70 year old woman who wants to be baptized. she
accepted a date so quickly, i couldn't even finish the invite without
her saying "si!" so quickly.
so That is basically my week. I would just ask you all if you would
pray in our behalf taht we can find someone who is willing and
prepared to hear our message. we ahve been having a real struggle with
that. but we are going to keep on fighting. I love you all and I can't
wait to hear from you soon!

Les Amo Simpre. tengan cuidado cuando esten en Lake Powell. Regresen
con seguridad!

Elder Dallin M. Ollerton

Monday, July 16, 2012

Letter from 7/16/12

Hey everyone!!

It has been a cray week out here in sunny Anaheim/Orange California. A
lot of great things are starting to happen out here. Which is such a
blessing from the Lord.

So This is my first week in this new area. I got to the new area with
my new companion Elder Excell. Some of the first words he told me was
"This area hasn't had a baptism in a while." Of course as you could
imagine it brought me down a little, knowing that in about a years
time this area hasn't seen a baptism. But at the same time it really
didn't affect me at all. Because the last area I was in, La Habra, was
in the same shape, if not worse shape when I got here. And we found a
lot of success there. I knew we would be able to find people. I can
just remember telling him "Well Elder...Let's hit the pavement" haha
So we have been doing a lot of finding this week. Because they
literally had five investigators that were in their area book. and
they were all the Eternal investigator type. I told him that we should
go and see them and see if they are serious about being baptized. So
we started at this girls house. Her name is Rachelle. She has been
investigating the church for about two years now. She is twelve years
old. Her dad is a member, but the hard part about it is that her dad
was deported back to Mexico not too long ago. Besides her dad, she has
no other support at all. We tried to teach her mom, but she wasn't
interested at all either. So we stopped by a few times, and invited
her to be baptized a few times. She denied. So it looks like we are
going to have to stop teaching her. Really unfortanute, becase she is
a really nice girl.

We went out finding one day and i saw this lady cleaning her sofas out
on her yard. We offered to help her out and she said she was done. We
offered her a card. Which then turned into a prayer, which turned into
a lesson, then we invited her to be baptized. She accepted. So we are
going to be following up with her tomorrow to see if she has been
reading the book of mormon. WE are very exicted about that.

WE also found a man the other day while he was taking a break from
work. we gave him a card and explained about the restoration and why
there are so many chruches out here on the earth today. we told him
how he could know for himself by reading the Book of Mormon. So we
gave him one, got his information, and left. Just the other day we had
an appointment fall through, and Elder Excell wanted to see antoher
former investigator. I just thought of Miguel and said that we should
stop by. we knocked on his door and his wife answered the door. Then
she looked back when we asked for him and he was dead asleep. haha but
he woke up, and we came in and followed up on him. He had actually
read the introduccion and the testimonios de los ocho testigos. He
said he's wanted to change his life for a while. for his family. But
something has been making him put it off. I told him that we are here
now, and we are going to help him. I'm really excited about Miguel. He
has some great potential.

So when I got here I learned that we had an investigator with a
baptismal date. His name is Daniel. he is about nine years old. He is
the son of a less active member. I guess he always wanted to get
baptized. But I guess they hadn't come to church in a while and they
just missed him being baptized when he was eight. So now he has to
talk to the missionaries and receive the lessons. He is planning on
getting baptized this sunday. But we just started teaching him. They
want him to get baptized this sunday because he has other family
coming into town. It is a lot to take in for a nine year old though.
So i''m very skeptical that it'll happen. But miracles can happen
right? Will you please pray that this can happen? Dad, How do you
teach a nine year old? haha I'm not very good at teaching kids.

Well that is basically my week! I just thank you for all your support
again. I love you all and can't wait to hear about the things you are
doing. Les Amo siempre

Elder Dallin M. Ollerton

Monday, July 9, 2012

July 9, 2012


Hey everyone!
It has been another great week outhere in the mission field. A lot of crazy things ahve happened just in the last 24 hours. So yesterday Victor was confirmed a member of the church and he also received the Aaronic priesthood. WE were very excited about that. We also talked to him about going on a mission. He told usthat he wants to go on one. That got me pretty stoked as you could imagine. We could be serving missions at the same time. How cool would that be too see your recent convert serve a mission at the same time? So cool.
This week was a week of finding. I went on another Exchange with Elder Centeno. This time he came to my area. So I had the lead and I got to do most of the decision making around here. I was very happywith that. The only problem was that every single one of the appointments we had fell through. I just looked at the goals we had and went to work. We found some really cool people to teach. Like one time I was with Elder Centeno and I decided to knock on this one door. Elder Larsen and I had contacted her before, but i decided to stop by to see how she was doing and to see if we could set an appointment with a member. I knocked. She opened the door. She expressed how hard her life is right now. She has three boys, all of them are under the age of 13. She is a single mom, trying to find work, and trying to find time to pay her bills and all. We shared how the gospel of Jesus Christ could help her significantly. She could feel it too. She accepted a date to be baptized right there. I think that is how the Lord in one wayprepares his children to hear the message of the Restored gospel. Because I have often found in my own life that when everything is all good, we forget our Heavenly Father, and what Jesus Christ did for us. Taht is why I belive that God gives us challenges. To remember Him, and to go to Him for divine help. It was really a Miracle that we found her. We also were blessed enough to find eight knew investigators in the area. that was something that we have been really struggling with. so we were very blessed to find them.
We have also been working dilligently with this family of eight that we found. Right now we are primarily teaching Maria, Antonyo, Jenneifer, and Blanca. Jennefier and Blanca have both come to chruch and they loved it. Maria is very catholic, and she loves her chruch. But we had a lot of great talks about the restoration, and we even watched it with them one night. She loves the book of Mormon and knows that it is true. She even accepted a date to be baptized. When she said yes, her daughter looked at her like "what the heck?" kind of a look. haha It was awesome.
That really is pretty much all that has been happening in the area. So now it's time for the crazy stuff. So Friday night we got a call from President Bowen. He was calling Elder Larsen to be a disrict leader, he didn't tell us where, but we knew that he was leaving. He believed that I was going to stay in La habra and get a new companion to keep the area going. Because when we got here we had nothing, we had to build this area back up again. So Elder was getting evertying all prepped for me to take over. But then we came to find our the next day that they are making a third spanish zone in the mission. and the zone leaders for the north zone were going to be in our apartment and area. Then we kinda freaked out, because we weren't expecting a new zone to pop out of nowhere. I got a call on saturday. I am now in Anaheim 11th ward. I will be with a new companion, His name is Elder Excell. He is from South Jordan Utah. He has been out here just as long as Elder Larsen has (a year after this transfer). I have already moved my stuff in. It's a big area. I am still in car. haha I'm very grateful for that. It has been very hot here. He is a great Elder and I'm very excited to work with him. Somehting interesting about hte area. So you remember the Marriot we stayed in right before I came out on my mission? Yeah, my apartment is right across the street from there. ahhahahaha crazy huh? So part of disneyland is in my area. I will be passing it everyday for the next month and a half. And no, I can't go in. But it's gonna bring back all of those good memories. I am very excited. The area is slow, but we are going to pick it back up again.
It was so hard to leave though, saying goodbye to the Torreblanca's and Rosa Estrada and victor was so hard. I gotta say that it was almost as hard as leaving you guys to leave for my mission. I really loved them so much. I will be able tosee them around though, so I'm glad for that.
So that is pretty much my week! I am very excited to continue the work of the Lord here in Anaheim, CAlifornia. Thank you for the support you give me everyweek. I love you all and I miss you so much. Hear from you soon!! Les Amo Siempre!
Elder Dallin M. Ollerton

Monday, July 2, 2012

Dallin, Victor, Elder Larsen

Elder Ollerton, Victor, Elder Larsen

Letter on 7/2/2012


Hey Eveyone!!
It has once again been a very good and fast week out here in the mission field. it is hard to belive that i am here again typing to you all.
This week has been a very good week. We had a baptism yesterday for Victor Romero. Everything with that went very smoothly. Which was an answer to our prayers. haha Because the last one was very stressful. But we were able to get it all set up with time to spare. We got the programs ready. The font filled, Victor all dressed up. And we had a very good and short program. Short, sweet, and to the point. I loved the talks that were given in the service. Victor likes to hear from men with knowledge. So we told him about people we knew in the ward that were very knowledgilbe of the gospel. He picked Hermano Cerda. He was a stake president, bishop a few times, and he was a mission president out in Guatemala. He also taught institute for almost forty years. So we asked him to come and speak on the Holy Ghost. He did such a great job. He even told Victor that he should go on a mission. He could go in a year. In fact we could both be serving missions at the same time. HOw cool would taht be? He is awesome. Doing so good. He is truely a miracle. Because I can remember like it was yesterday wkhen we stopped his mom on the street for the first time. She was my first contact on the mission. She accpted another appointment. We came back and he was there, but he was more in the background. We were focusing on his mom more until he accepted a baptismal date. Then we went on from there and got him baptized. Pretty amazing huh? He is a great man, I cant wait to get him confirmed so he can come out and teach with us.
We also had the confirmations of David and Daisy Torreblanca yesterday. I was asked to participate in this ordinance. I was very honored of them to ask me to participate. We confirmed them in sacrament meeting. Next week David will be ordained to the office of a priest, so he can start to bless the sacrament. In a few weeks him and Humberto will bless the sacrament together. So cool huh? two recent convert brothers blessing the sacrament together. What a miracle. We have also been talking about going to the temple in a year. I can't wait to go with them. Oh haha I was talking to Humberto all about Utah the other day and now he wants to come out and visit Springville/utah sometime. haha maybe we'll have to get him a trip out here or something someday. I love that guy. This saturday we are going to go out to In n Out burger. I told him i was going to get a four by four to eat. And yes I'm doing it for you Justin. In your honor i'm going to die from a heart attack this week. haha
So as far as other people we are teaching...we don't have a whole lot right now. We are in finding mode. Meaning we are going to be doing a lot of looking around for people to teach and seeing who is serious about the gospel. We actually have a family of eight we are teaching right now. They are very christian right now and go to another church. But we actually got two of the kids to come to church with us. They are the only ones who have a baptismal date, but we are going to continue to work with the parents and the other kids. That part of La Habra I do not like, especially on the weekends, I just got a little scared the other day. but i will be okay!!
I went to the doctor the other day. By the way I was describing my problems to him he said that there is no related problems to my headaches. So he gave me some stuff to help (tylenyol) and another prescription. (galetin?? i don't know how it's spelled) to see if that would hlep. He also wants me to go to a doctor to see if it's my eyes that are causing the problem. So i'm going to get an appointment there and we will see what happens. I haven't started to take the medication yet because I just got it today, but I will let you know how it helps next week.
Speaking of next week. I will probably be getting a new companion. I am finished with training after this week. Elder Larsen thinks that he will be transferred from our current area. Because he has been in the same ward and district his whole entire mission (about 9 months i think). I'll be honest i'm going to miss elder Larsen. He has helped me progress a ton in the gospel. he has also helped me to grow as a man. Last night we were talking about the memories we had and I can definitely say that I have grown and made progress since being out here in the field. I am so grateful the Lord put Elder Larsen into my life. I don't know where I would be without him.
The church is true everyone! I'm so grateful that you are all supporting me! I will get back to you all as soon as I can. Les Amo!
Elder Dallin M. Ollerton