Letter from August 13, 2012

August 13, 2012

Hey everyone!

Wow, This week has been the best week as far as number wise in our area. We taught a lot of lessons and met some really cool people out here.

So the beginning of this week I had about a five second scare. We were

In our apartment on Tuesday morning when all of a sudden I heard a

noise. Then our apartment shook really hard for a few seconds. Afterward I was like "What the heck was that?” I came to a quick conclusion that it was an Earthquake that I had experienced. That is the first earthquake I have actually witnessed. I know that when I was five years old I slept through one, but I had never actually experienced one. It was sweeeeeet!!! Ha-ha I guess there were like eight of them all over Orange County. But after that we were fine and there hasn't been another one since then.

After that day I went on an exchange with none other than my "dad" or my trainer Elder Larsen. As you could imagine I was so dang stoked to go back to his area and work with him. It was a crazy day. He had already had a flat tire on his bike (bike area) and then we went out to ride he got another flat tire. He rode the whole day with two flat tires. That guy is the man. It was a crazy day. We had six set appointments and we taught a ton. It was so good. It was kind of like coming home after being on a trip. Ha-ha But then we came back and moved on into our own areas.

This week we saw a miracle. There was this certain apartment complex that we keep going to so we could find someone to teach there. There is a little six-year-old kid that is always outside playing with other friends that he has there. I always yell at him "Amigo" whenever we pass by. One time we went in and knocked on a door in this complex. He didn't answer. Then there was a girl that was yelling at my amigo to hurry and get inside. She was yelling and cussing and everything. He was trying to carry a big box full of his toys that he had been playing with. I went up to him and said, "Do you need help amigo?" I got the box and carried it to his apartment. We starting to teach the girl and she ended up accepting a baptismal date. It was awesome. We came back looking for her and ending up teaching a different girl. It's the oldest. She accepted a book of Mormon and a baptismal date as well. It was a miracle. They are very humble right now. Their dad is in the hospital right now with Cancer. So they are really open for anything that could help bring a miracle. We promised them it would and they listened. We are struggling with them now though because one of the Girls is moving. The other one said she was reading the book of Mormon and got really sick. So she took that to be her answer that it's not true. So we are going to work with her. I hope and pray that we can find a way to help her.

We are still teaching Claudia. We had a lesson with our ward mission leader the other day. There is a reason why the brethren stress member present lessons. Because without his testimony I think that we would have eventually dropped her some point this week. We are hoping that she gets an answer soon and gets to come to church with us this week.

We also started to teach an older couple named Guillermo and Gloria.

They were very open to our message. They are looking for the truth.

They were raised catholic, but never go to church. So we left them some Books of Mormon and committed them to pray. The hard part with them is getting them to come to church but we are going to get them there. We had a funny experience with them. So we were just talking to them about them and their lives. When I heard some birds they had tweet really loudly. The next thing I know they are flying all over the place in their apartment. It was crazy because they had like three of them. They were grazing my head too. It was awesome! Ha-ha

Oh Rachelle and her sister Genesis are doing well too! They both came to church yesterday. It was the first time in a very long time that

Genesis came. So we are seeing a lot of progress in them. We are hoping that Rachelle keeps pushing for the 26th. Let's hope and pray she does. They are both going to girls camp too this week. So we hope that will be a really big help for them too. Very excited.

Well, transfers are next week so I might be heading out. My guess is that Elder Excell is leaving and I’m getting a new companion but we will see.  Thank you again for all of your support. I love you so much and I’m so blessed! Hear from you all soon!

Elder Dallin M. Ollerton