Letter for April 1, 2013

Hey everyone! 

Another week in the field has blown by! We have had a lot of crazy things happen this week as always. We have seen a lot of great miracles out here in Santa Ana. I love being here and we are learning a lot as well. 

As you all know, yesterday was Easter. What a beautiful day it was out here in California. What a great day to really just remember all that our Savior has done for us. We had such a great class given yesterday in the third hour about the life of the Savior. It really pierced my heart and I could really feel the love our Savior has for every single one of us. I am so grateful that we have this opportunity to be able to return and live in the presence of our Heavenly Father again. I could not imagine, however, what it was like for Him to have to send down His only begotten son to atone for our sins. I bet that was unbearable. I know without a doubt my brothers and sisters, that Jesus Christ really did suffer for all of our sins, pains, and afflictions. That He would be able to know how to help us and to allow us to have the chance to live with God again. I'm eternally grateful for that. As we apply the atonement into our lives. We will come to be a new, clean, and stronger person. I know that to be true. We just need to have that faith in Him to do as He asks. How powerful it is. I know it to be true with all of my heart. 

I had a fun day on Tuesday. I went on an exchange with my old companion Elder Excell. He is my zone leader. I went to his area. Which covers the entire mission. Ha-ha he is in the single's ward of the Spanish stake. Which is the whole mission. So we were cruising all over the place. We actually went and taught one of their investigators that was in the area where Elder Excell and I served in Anaheim. It was really fun to go back into the old area and think back on the good times we had there. We had a great lesson with them too. We were able to help set a baptismal date with him. In his last prayer he said, "I know I’m going to get baptized" I was amazed. So they have some great work ahead of them in that ward. That was really fun.

I also went on exchanges with Elder Vincent in his area that is in our district. We had a good time as well. We went and did some service at a members house that is actually in my area. In fact it was at the Acosta’s. We cleaned up their backyard because the hermano is having arm pains. He has been cooking at a Chinese restaurant for a looooonnnngg time. It was really nice to get out and get my hands a little dirty. Then we went around their area and got lost on our way to dinner. That was really great. Ha-ha we got some really good cake from some members called "Choco flan" It was really good. It was a good day and we worked really hard. 

So as far as our area goes right now, we had a miracle with Mari. We decided since we were preparing for Easter we would watch a movie called "Finding Faith in Christ" which talks a lot about the life of the Savior, what He did and the importance of having faith in Him. I had the impression, out of nowhere, to invite her to be baptized. Then right when that thought came across my mind Elder Castaneda invited her to be baptized. She accepted too! She has never accepted a date to be baptized from any other set of elders that have taught her. We were so happy. We set a goal with her to have her ready to be baptized by the 21st of April. She said that she is coming to conference this week too. So we are really stoked and happy for her. We know that she will be ready by then. We just need to keep getting her friends in the church and so that way we can help her feel more comfortable in church. 

We weren't able to teach the Kim at all this week. The one time we did actually see her she didn't really want to talk to us at all. I know though that we will be able to teach her and help her come unto the Savior. She really needs it right now. We had a really good lesson with her dad though. He is all on board for helping us out with teaching her. We told him how cool it would be if he baptized her. He got really excited when he heard that so we hope and pray that they will get going soon!

We are still seeing Christopher. He was unable to come to church, but we are still trying to help him get ready for baptism. We found a little roadblock that we have to work around. I guess his parents might not let him get baptized.  We are going to talk to them too so that way we can get him ready. He said that if his parents say yes then he would get baptized a.s.a.p. So we hope to have a miracle there! I know we will.

All is well over here. We are just trying to work hard and I know that we will see miracles. I love you all! I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Dallin M. Ollerton