Hey all!
This week has
been a very good/interesting week.
It started
out super slow this week. We didn’t have the greatest week
last week
like I wrote about. We were trying to do a lot of finding
and we were
diligent in doing so, and the Lord blessed us with more
people to
teach.
So, first off
for the family. I will let you know that I did something
very silly on
Tuesday. I was messing around with some
of the
settings on
my camera, and it turns out that on accident I erased all
of the photos
and videos I had taken on it. That goes clear back to
when I was
with Elder Excell. I was really bummed about that. I had a
lot of sick
videos and pictures to send home. I was just about to send
it home too.
So now I'm trying to make up for it by taking a lot more
pictures.
Sorry about that. I can't do anything about it now.
So from about
Monday to Thursday was just really hard. We would struggle to even find someone
to teach. We would drive all around to just about
every
investigator we had everyday. They were either not home, or they
were home and
were super duper busy. Even when we would find someone to
teach. They
were already on the edge of being dropped, or it wasn't
the best
lesson I had ever taught. We kept going though.
Friday is our
weekly planning day. That is when we take 2-3 hours of
the day to
plan for our investigators and for the area every week. We
were in the
middle of planning and setting goals for how many lessons
we wanted to
get in when Elder Janne stopped and looked at me. We
talked about
this area. We decided to change our mind set about the
work and the
area. We went out, we went knocking. We found a really
cool older
lady name Amalia. We were just talking to her about the
Book of
Mormon and what it was. She was like "oh it's another book to
help us
understand the bible better right?" We were amazed. She had a
lot of
responses about our comments of the restoration that went in
line with our
beliefs. So we are really excited about that. We also
have been
contacting a ton of referrals that we have been receiving
from members,
and other missionaries. The coolest one we found was
Luis. He is
fourteen years old. Very smart kid. We were explaining and
teaching him
about the restoration and he loved it. He knows a lot
about the
bible too. It really surprised us. He accepted to be
baptized. So
we are going to follow up with him soon hopefully. That
might be our
biggest challenge with him.
We are also
still teaching Miguel. We taught him a lot about church.
That was our
biggest focus with him. Because that was our biggest
problem when
I taught him in La Habra. So we taught him a lot about
it. He really
opened up to us this week about how he feels
"spiritually
dead" he feels that's how his spirit is. So we read with
him in 2
Nephi 4. I could see on his face how bummed he looked. He
told me that
he feels like how Lehi felt when He said he was "drooped
in sin"
we explained that through Christ he would never have to feel
that way
anymore. We went on Sunday morning to wake him up to go to
church...nothing.
He didn't go at all. I don't know what we are going
to do about
that, but I do know that the Lord will direct us in the
right
direction.
We also
started to teach some former investigators that sister
missionaries
taught. Their names are Jesus and Hortencia. They seemed
way open
about the restoration. They also accepted dates to be
baptized. Now
we just have to get them to church. So we are excited
about that.
So we saw
Miguel and Dane, the Jehovah's Witnesses again a few times
this week. We
actually had a really good lesson with them. See because
usually when
we had a member with us they would go off on a whole
other topic
and they would eventually get back to what we were going
to teach
them, but it would always end up bad. We just went in
ourselves. We
told him our purpose as missionaries. We taught them the
restoration
again. I don't know though if they really are interested.
bad I know, but
they got the whole message in. So this next
appointment
we have with them is probably their last chance. We
learned why
Miguel is 'afurera' or outside his church. so we'll see
what happens.
That is
basically the week we had. I'm starting to gain a great
testimony on
the power of the priesthood though. so last Sunday I was
asked to give
a blessing to an elderly sister in the ward who was
about to take
this strong medicine. and how she basically had to be
confined in
her room for like a few days and stuff like that. She
wanted a
blessing and asked that I perform it. I did, then we left
and moved on
and I didn't see her for a week. She came to church the
next Sunday.
And she shared her experience. She told me that all that
I had said
and blessed her came true. She did not feel pain like she
was expecting
to. She went through the whole process without any
problems
either. Which she and the doctor’s thought she would. She also
said that
when I blessed her I said 'tu vas a sentir el amor de Dios
que tiene
para ti" or something like that. That translates to you are
going to feel
the love that God has for you. She said as she was in
her room when
she took the medicine. She could feel the spirit so
strongly and
she said she could feel the love God had for her, and
that she
could feel Him helping her and comfort her. I thought that
was awesome.
I know the power of the priesthood is real, and that it
has the power
to work miracles.
I'm also
starting to get a greater love of the Book of Mormon. I
receive revelation
everyday reading from it. How could one not read
it? I guess I
never thought that growing up. I wasn't the best at
reading it.
But let me tell you. I will never go a day without reading
it. I know
it's true and that it's the word of God.
I love you
all! Thank you for your support and for all you do to help
me out. I've
been so blessed. Can't wait to hear from you soon!
Elder Dallin M. Ollerton
