July 29, 2013 Photos

 Elder Robinson and Elder Ollerton

Dallin and some other missionaries

Letter for July 29, 2013

Hey all!

Wow, I can't believe another great week has gone by. It seems that it goes by faster and faster. I can't believe it. I guess that is what happens, as one grows older. It's amazing. Sounds like everyone had a great pioneer day back home. Here most people have no idea what that is.  I celebrated it in my heart!

We played baseball last p-day and I was sore for about 4 days. I was walking around looking really stiff.  We set some good goals this week as a companionship and we saw some really good results. On Wednesday we had an interesting lesson with Liliana. She was supposed to get baptized this Sunday but because she hasn’t come to church enough she was unable to get baptized. She told us that she was going to come and then she never showed up. We went over to her house for an appointment, but we didn't have a male member with us. So we asked her if we could come back later so we could actually enter her home, she said yes. We started calling every member we could think of and then finally a man named Hermano Martinez told us that he could come with us. We went over and started talking about how she's doing with reading and praying. She is doing very well there. We also asked her how she felt about baptism. She brought up some concerns, which is really good. When we started teaching her she was really closed off and really didn't like to express to us her feelings. Now that she has been able to participate of the fruit and knows that this is all true she is actually more open to us. She asked us if she were to join the church would she have to distance herself from her family since they don't follow the word of wisdom and the other commandments that we follow. Hermano Martinez came right in and told her she wouldn't need to do that, but she could use it as a way to invite her family to come to church and to see what it is like. He shared how he was converted to the church and how he was able to invite his brother. His brother eventually joined the church as well. She really liked that and you could tell that she was more at peace. We talked about how we wanted to invite her family to church, too. We had a great lesson. She then expressed how she was nervous and wasn't ready to be baptized yet. She feels like she needs to change a lot before she can be baptized. Then we discussed baptism and how it's important that we do our very best to keep the commandments, but we don’t' need to be perfect to be baptized. If we did then there would be no reason for baptism. We read with her in 2 Nephi 31:17 about how baptism is the door that opens up to the path, which leads us to God. We need to take that first step. Then Elder Robinson came in and shared Moroni 8:25-26 and talked about how she will be clean again. She really loved it and we moved her date of baptism to the 4th of August. We had another lesson with her and she was telling us how on the weekend she was sharing the word of wisdom pamphlet with her friends. They got mad at her and left. She was really bold in sharing the gospel with her friends, which is so neat. She didn't come to church again though :( So we will have to move her date again. We have got to get her husband on board too.  We are going to see them tonight and invite him to listen too.  That way he can be a better support to her. So pray for her. She is soooo close!

We went on exchanges again in Garden Grove. I went back to my old area. Man it was like taking a trip back into time. We went back and visited a lot of people that I taught when I was there because the area is struggling a little bit. In fact, when we went over to see Anita she told me she was cooking my favorite Mexican dish. Enchiladas Verdes. She invited us to come back and eat, so we did. We talked and right now she has no desire to be baptized. I know that she will be someday, whether it’s in this world or the next, she will. I guess we just have to give it time don't we? I love that family so much. I baptized her little boys and they are doing great. It was a really fun day and we had a really good experience together.

Friday was kind of a hard day. We had about 5 scheduled appointments that all cancelled on us right before we were going to see them. We were able to meet a really cool new guy on Saturday named Gilberto. I guess Elder Robinson taught him on exchanges. He is the roommate of a less active member in our ward. They taught him the restoration and they set a baptismal date for the 25 of August.  They told me that he is really good. We went back and he had read the pamphlet, and the introduction to the Book of Mormon, which is amazing. He was also asking us a lot of questions about his reading. Like about the Urim and Thumum and stuff like that. We taught him the plan of salvation and he loved it. He is really receptive and really promising. So we are excited about him.  He didn’t come to church either. But we will get him.

We didn't have anyone at church again this week. That was kind of hard. We are going to put a lot of focus on it this week. That way our investigators can keep progressing. That is one of the biggest steps for an investigator to take in his/her progression. Church is so important and if we can’t get them there, then there is no way they will be able to get baptized. The good news is that Garden Grove had 2 baptisms on Sunday, so our zone is doing very well. I love being a zone leader. It's a lot of fun and I love serving other missionaries. I love this work. I love this mission. I was thinking about it the other day... when my time comes to go home, it's going to be pretty hard. I've come to love the people so much. I love this stake, the wards, my companions, and everything else. This is my home. Anaheim will always be apart of me. I love the Lord. I love His work. I will always do it too. I love you all. Have a great week.

Elder Dallin M. Ollerton 

Letter for July 22, 2013

Hey everyone!

Wow! What a week it has been. We have been very busy doing a lot of busy work. That is what happens as a zone leader in the beginning of a new transfer. Our area covers the mission office so the assistants use us every now and then when they need our help.  It's been fun! We have had a lot of great experiences and we have seen a lot of great things. Sounds like everything back home has been great and there are a lot of things going on. Congrats Camers on your lacrosse season and mom and dad with your anniversary. I love you guys so much! The weather here has been a little weird lately! We have actually had some rainstorms.  Nothing too big, but that never happens in the summertime apparently. So that has been really fun to have different weather lately. I never thought I would get tired of sunny perfect weather all the time. But I have been a little! The rain was really nice.

Richy wasn't able to come to church yesterday. He was ill and said that he wanted to wait til he felt better to come to church. We had a really neat experience with him on Tuesday. After our first lesson, with him, we were thinking of what member would be perfect to friendship him. We thought of a guy named Tony. They are the same age and like the same things. We brought him over with us and we began to teach the plan of salvation. Oh by the way he read and prayed about the Book of Mormon and told us he believes it's true. While we were teaching him the lesson Richy was like "wait, you're Tony?" and Tony said " you're Richy Hernandez?" they got up and gave each other a fist pump. I guess they had known each other before in school. They hadn't seen each other for about five years they said. Back then they were best friends too. So it was awesome. So Richy is in and has a really good friend in the church already. So it's awesome. We hope we can continue to get him ready for the 11th of August. He's awesome!  

The youth had their trek this week. There were about 120 youth in the whole stake that went. None of them had serious injuries. So that was great. The night before they left we were at the church and a Hermana came up to me and asked me if it would be okay if one of her girls could represent Alice Ollerton in the trek. I told the young woman that was going that it would be an honor if she did that. So the Ollertons were represented at the trek for our stake this year. Pretty amazing and they had a great experience. They were all beat after wards, so that was awesome.

We met a new guy named Francisco on the street not too long ago. We ran into him again later in the week and he told us to come back so that we could visit him. We came back and he invited us in. We shared the restoration with him, his wife, and son. They really enjoyed it and they are super interested in the church. They said that they are going to come this next Sunday. They all accepted to be baptized. Not on a specific day...yet. Our bishop is from the same part of Mexico as Francisco so we are going to bring the bishop over to friendship Francisco. They are going to feed us tonight and make some homemade tortillas. I'm going to ask the Hermana for a recipe cause I love homemade tortillas so much! I'm excited for them.

Lilliana is doing well too. She was unable to come to church. She had to take care of some family things. Her four kids were going to come too. She signed up to feed us last week so she fed us too. It's always a good sign when your investigators feed you. She gave us enchiladas de mole. They were soooo good. We taught her the word of wisdom and the law of chastity and she is already living both of them. So she is progressing towards baptism! We will have to move her date to a later date because she didn't come to church. We are very excited for her and hope that we can even get her kids on board for baptism as well. So yeah!

It's been a great week. Elder Robinson and I are tearing it up! I’m very excited for this week. We are going to play some baseball with some members today for p-day. What a great way to start off the week. I love you all and I cant wait to hear from you soon!

Elder Dallin M. Ollerton

Letter for July 15, 2013

Hey everyone!

Wow, Another week has flown by out here in the mission field. I want to first off say congrats to my folks back home. My parents will be having their 23rd wedding anniversary. I love them so much and I’m so grateful that they are my parents! I have the best parents in the world! Thanks mom and dad, I love you both so much.  My cousin Easton was ordained an Elder this week. Congrats man! I'm so dang proud of you! You are going to be such a great missionary out there in Argentina! I’m gonna miss you too. But I’m so excited for you!

 It seems that with the more time you are out in the field the faster transfers go by. We just had transfers not too long ago and here they are again. We are staying together. I'm still with Elder Robinson! We are stoked. I’m going to be "killing" Elder Robinson, meaning I’m going to be his last companion out here on his mission. He goes home after this next transfer. Which is so crazy because he was one of the first missionaries I met when I got here. So it's crazy!

We had a pretty good week last week. Liliana came to church! Yahoooooo! Since we felt so bad about what happened last week we told here that we were going to walk with her to church. We also called a member of the relief society, who had accompanied us to a lesson the week previous, to come with us. So that way Liliana would have a friend at church and wouldn't feel uncomfortable. The member really did a great job at taking her in and showing her around and  explaining what the services are all about. Everyone was friendly with her and that was so great. I love that because almost all the members in our ward are converts and know exactly what she is going through. So they really took her in quite well. She is still progressing to baptism on the 28th of July. She is so awesome and it's so cool to see how applying the gospel in her life is really making such a difference. She reads and prays everyday. Something she never did before. She is even noticing the difference in herself as well. She is really eating it up! So it's awesome! We are very excited for her. We have a great lesson plan for tonight, so we hope and pray that she continues on and progresses towards the waters of baptism! :)

We had a cool experience finding someone new. His name is Richy. He is seventeen. We kept stopping by his families apartment and asking for his parents and he always said they weren't home. So we decided to stop by and teach him. His mom was there and said that he's never really gone to church and if he wants to join then he can. We had a really neat lesson with him. The spirit was there and I loved it. We invited him to read and to pray and he accepted. It was so awesome. He even accepted a date to be baptized as well. We are going to work with him and get him going. It really was a miracle. He is an awesome kid and is going to make a great member of the church.

Well I’m out of computer time. I love you all and I hope that you all have a great week this week. I know that the church is true! Love you all!

Elder Dallin M. Ollerton

Letter for July 8, 2013

Hey all!

Wow. Well, actually quite a bit has happened since I last wrote on Wednesday!  Sounds like all is well back home. Justin is off to football camp and everyone else is off to their normal thing! On Wednesday night I had the delightful opportunity to teach the Young Women at mutual!  I'll tell you why. So the stake is doing their first ever-pioneer trek. The stake is about 20 years old and has never done one before. So they have been preparing for it and getting all the youth excited for it. They are doing it the same as we do it back home with the exception of them doing it somewhere in California. A few weeks ago I spoke in church and I mentioned that I had pioneer ancestry. So the Young Women's president asked me if I would come and share my family history with them. They gave me a whole hour to talk about it. I'm really grateful that Grandma Ollerton sent me the written family history.  I studied up and really ended up learning a ton about my family history and I just fell in love with it. So, I talked about John and Alice Ollerton. I didn't think I was going to take that long but I ended up taking about 50 min. I talked to them about my trek experiences and how much I loved it and how they were going to love it and I was really excited for them. I also related my story to them and they really ate it up. They had seen 17 miracles not too long ago and I would relate scenes from the movie that were just like what had happened to my family. It really made it more personal. I told them as well that the decisions they make now in their lives are going to affect generations and generations of their posterity. I told them that I am a sixth generation member of the church. They were all amazed at that. Most members in this stake are converts to the church. So I told them how much I appreciated my relatives listening to the missionaries and then coming to Zion in Utah. Who knows where I would be without the gospel in my life? My life would be totally different.  I hope that made an impact on them. They seemed to have enjoyed it. I really enjoyed it too. It was really powerful.

Thursday we had a great zone meeting. We met as a zone to get ready for the training we will be receiving as a mission. We received training from the assistants on Tuesday. Normally we would’ve given the training to our zone on Wednesday, but we had the temple trip on Wednesday. So we gave it on Thursday. It was interesting because when we got to the church to set it all up President Bowen was there. He told us "Don't get nervous because I’m here, I’m just here to listen."  I couldn't help but be a little nervous because the mission president was there to observe us. It was a great training on how to become powerful teachers. There is a sentence in Preach My Gospel on page 104 that says "The Book of Mormon, combined with the Spirit, is your most powerful resource in conversion" We focused last month on the Book of Mormon as a mission. Now we are putting a focus on the Spirit and really having in our lessons to help those we teach become truly converted to the gospel. It was really powerful and awesome. We had to go 30 min over because of all the participation we had and everything. President Bowen really liked it too. It was also July 4th so we went to a member’s house for dinner where they also shot off a bunch of fireworks. It was something I had never seen before. All the streets in Santa Ana were full of people blowing off fireworks. It was sooo loud and bright. Big ones. Little ones. It was awesome! We were told that there was a truck from Mexico selling fireworks from Mexico. It was nuts! Then we went to the top of our complex to watch the Anaheim Angels lite their fireworks. It was awesome. We had a lot of food and fun with investigators and members.

Friday we had a pretty humbling experience. We were walking to a member’s home at about 8:40 pm when a man stopped us and said he wanted to talk to us. You could smell alcohol on him. Then he told us that he's been looking for guys like us to talk to. He told us that he wants a lot of help right now. He has a drinking problem and wants to change his life. His wife and him keep getting into fights and problems. He has work and money to pay for the stuff he is just making the wrong choices. He was just bursting into tears because he knew that Satan had gotten a grasp on him. He knows that God can help him. He said something that I will never forget. "I know that God put you two in my path to help me." That really impacted me and I knew what he said was true. God really did put us in his path. I'm really glad we went over there instead of going home ya know? We got his phone number and we hope and pray we can find him again and begin to help him. Please keep Frank in your prayers tonight. He really needs them.

Liliana didn't come to church. We went with some members over to her house to teach her the rest of the plan of salvation and she really enjoyed it. The Spirit was really there as the members bore their testimonies. It was awesome. We called her Sunday morning and she told us that she was getting all ready to come to church. We got really excited. When sacrament started she still hadn’t shown up. We got a text from her. She said that she had walked and got to church. She noticed that all the women were dressed up in dresses and skirts. She was wearing jeans. She felt embarrassed and decided to go home and come another week. We felt really bad and we hope we can get her to church. She just needs more friends and that is exactly what we are going to do with her. Get her some more friends in the church.

Well that's about it! It's been a great week and I’m excited for another one! I love you all!

Elder Dallin M. Ollerton