Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Letter from October 9, 2012


Hey all!!

It has been a crazy, but awesome first week out here in Garden Grove!
It's been such a rewarding week.

First of all, CONFERENCE!!!!! I loved conference this year. It was
amazing! A lot about missionary work was spoken. When in doubt "Ask
the missionaries, they can help you." Haha.  Also President Monson's
amazing announcement about how Elders can go out at 18 and how sisters can go and 19. That can have some real big impact on the Ollerton
family. That means my cousin Easton can be out on his mission while
I'm just hitting over a year. My brother Justin will be able to leave
right after I get home. That would be amazing! I guess we will see
what happens with that. But I thought that was really incredible. The
Lord is really putting a lot of trust in the young people who live in the world right now. Awesome.

So this week. This week, regardless of all the meetings, not being
able to teach as much as a normal week. We taught a ton. We did a lot
of finding. Because neither Elder Walker nor I have been in this area,
well, Elder walker was in this area, but a long time ago. So we
decided to go out and find. The first lesson I taught here was to an
Investigator who has been listening to the missionaries for a long
time. her name is Gudelia. We taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ
and the importance of being baptized. I invited her to be baptized.
She thought about it, but then kindly said that she needed more time.
We came to find out that the reason that she didn't want to be
baptized is because she didn't like bugging people about giving her a
ride to church. We resolved that concern and got her a ride for
church. She came to the two sessions we had on Sunday. She loved them.
I can remember sitting there in the other room listening and saying to
Elder Walker "I hope Gudelia is listening to this." If she really
listened she should be baptized. We are going to see her soon.

We also started to teach a lady named Ana. She is in her early
thirties and has three little boys. She has been listening to the
missionaries for a short time. I guess one of the recent converts
referred her to the Elders before us. She is very confused. That is
what she told us. Because all of these different churches have been
coming up to her and trying to covert her, but we talked to her about
The Book of Mormon and how that can help her understand what church is
true. She read, and prayed. She is making progress for the little time
we have known her. She is having a tough time right now raising three
kids on her own. She is so occupied with so many things that we aren't
sure how we are going to help her. But we set a date for her to be
baptized. So we've set the goal. Now we are going to work with her
little by little to get her to the waters of baptism.

Another awesome person we found is a neighbor of Ana. We saw this lady
outside a door. We decided to talk to her because Elder Walker knew
her from a while ago. She taught her, and she was very receptive. She
accepted a baptismal date for the 4th of November. We got really
excited for her. We came back to find her another day, but she wasn't
there. Her son was there. So we taught him and he also accepted a
date to be baptized. It was amazing!

We also have been talking a lot to this recent convert part member
family that lives in our area. They are the relatives of Ana. We also
met another relative as we were over at their house to see them. Her
name is Ines. We taught them and helped her overcome the doubt of how
she was already baptized once, and how she can find out how she can
find the right church. It was amazing. We committed her and her little
Nine-year-old daughter to get baptized too. It was awesome!!

Those are just some of the amazing people we have found to teach. We
have found ten new investigators and taught many lessons. It was
awesome! I love the companion I have. We have been working so hard and
we have seen so many miracles from it. Elder Walker is such a
hilarious guy. He also has such a strong spirit and he teaches with
such power. Nothing better right? He has been awesome. I'm so excited
to see what the Lord has in store for this area for the next week.

I love being a missionary! there is nothing better than this! I am
living the dream! I am so grateful for all the blessings I have been
given. I have been so blessed with such great family and friends such
as yourselves. Thank you for everything! I love you all and can't wait
to hear from you soon!

Elder Dallin M. Ollerton

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