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