Hey all!!
Wow, Hard to
believe that another week has flown by here in the mission field! We are
seeing so many miracles here in Anaheim. It's such a blessing to be in the
mission field. I hit 18 months out here in the mission. It made me reflect on
my whole mission. I can't believe how fast time goes by. It's so crazy. I know
that right now I have no regrets about my mission. I've been working my hardest
and I’m so grateful for my mission in my life! So it's awesome!
On Monday we
had a great FHE (Family Home Evening) at our bishops home with the familia
Manzanares. All of them were there. They're quite a rumbustious group, but I
know that they will continue to learn and such. It was so cool because Alberto,
our investigator, had no idea what a FHE was and bishop did a great job at
helping him learn about it. They really enjoyed it, and it helped them get some
new friends in the church. Alberto is doing awesome! He is such a funny guy. I
love that family so much. They are really doing well. He used to be such a big
time drinker. We went over about 5 times to teach them this past week. He told
us that he is a week sober from drinking. That in itself is such a miracle of
the Lord. He couldn't go a day with out drinking when I was in the other area.
In fact at most of our lessons he was really drunk. So it’s so cool to see the
progress with them. I love them so much. Something totally random about when we
go over there is the flock of wild parrots that fly around their house. Yes, I
said it, Wild parrots. I guess in Santa Ana it's known that wild parrots fly
around together. It's really odd to see that here and in the city. They tell us
that it's their 5 AM alarm clock. It's so interesting because we would teach
them the plan of salvation and he had no idea that we lived before we got here
and that we would live after we die. He really liked it though and understood
that baptism is the first step we take on the staircase toward heaven. He is
doing so well. We are sad cause they weren't able to make it to church for some
reason. We hope that we can get them there this Sunday so that way he can
become more converted to the gospel. They
are doing well. Please keep them in your prayers!
We also had
zone conference this week. That was really fun. I had the privilege to be the
opening speaker at conference. I told you a little about the righteous routines
a while back. My topic was "Engaging the Godhead in the work through the
righteous routines." It was awesome. I really just broke it down. I
learned that one of the main definitions for engage is "to interlock"
I used football to compare it. Coach Ewing would always tell us receivers to
"engage" our defenders. The way we do that is by interlocking
ourselves with them. If we could do that we could drive them in any direction
we wanted. I likened to the righteous routines because when we study, pray,
plan, and teach we are interlocking ourselves with the Godhead. They are able
to drive us in the direction we need to go. I shared some cool experiences I
had as well. It was good. Afterward President Bowen and I were talking and
I told him you could compare football to anything in life. He got a real kick
out of it. I loved conference. Elder Robinson and Larsen (my trainer) gave
their departing testimonies. It was so weird to see them up there. Can't
believe it. Now it's my turn to step it up. It'll be exciting.
Friday we got
a new missionary in the zone. Transfers aren't until next week. We got an Elder
named Elder Curtis. He is from Richfield. It's a special situation because he
was originally called to Morelos, Mexico. He was out there for about a year and
had to go home because of medical reasons. He wanted to finish his mission and
they reassigned him to this area. He is an awesome elder. Although he's only
been out for a year his Spanish is amazing and way better than ours. It makes
all the non-Hispanic Elders mad, but we are excited to have him here in the
zone. So that was pretty exciting!
We saw
Gilberto quite a bit this week as well. He is progressing very well. We always
talk food when we go over. He is from Guerrero and he had his own small restaurant
there. I hope that maybe with time he can teach me how to cook. I love it
because he was telling us about how he and a buddy of his went to a buffet. His
buddy ate a ton and Gilberto was like "how can you fit all that in
there?" Then Elder Robinson told
Gilberto about the time I ate five hamburgers in one sitting at a member’s
house. Gilberto's jaw just about dropped to the floor. Ever since then we
always bring it up. I love that guy and he keeps telling us how excited he is
for his baptism. Which is this Sunday. We still have quite a bit to cover, but
he is so ready and prepared. We have had a ton of members come over to
fellowship him. He is doing very well. We are stoked for his baptism.
As you can
see things are going well here. It's the end of the transfer already, hard to
believe. It's also Elder Robinson's last week here as a missionary. I hope I
can make it the best last week a missionary could have. I know that's what I
would want my last comp to do. So it'll be good. I love the mission. I'm so
grateful that the Lord has given me this opportunity to serve Him. I'm a
testament that when you give up your life for the Lord, you shall find it. Just
like the scripture says. I know that that's true. I love you all. Have a great
week!
Elder Dallin M. Ollerton
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