Hey Everyone!
Well what a
week it has been! There have been a lot of changes! We had a great Christmas! I
loved it. We spent a lot of time early in the week just singing Christmas
Carols to the members and even non-members. We actually found a few new
investigators during the week because of it! They are actually very interested
in learning about the restored gospel. So it's really awesome! But I have some
news: I've been transferred to a new area for my last transfer! I have been
moved to the Buena Park 3rd ward. It's an interesting story. So, for about 20
years half the ward was covered in the Anaheim Mission and the Long Beach
Mission covered the other half. So the ward consisted of both Long Beach and
Anaheim missionaries. President Bowen has been fighting ever since he got here
to make it all part of our mission. Since the ward is in the stake which is
covered by our mission. They had to take it up to the missionary department of
the church. It has finally been approved and they sent all new missionaries to
the ward! It's pretty wild! This ward
has always been known for the great missionary work. I hear we have a great
ward mission leader. This ward baptizes a ton every year, anywhere from 35-50
people a year. So it was pretty crazy that I got called to serve there. It was
really hard to leave the members and investigators here in Santa Ana. I said my
goodbyes. We actually had great progress with one of the part member families
in our ward. The non-member is named Jesus. He is married to a member. He has
been listening to the missionaries for about 8 years now. No one has been able
to break him at all. He's catholic. He used to run EFY like camps for the
Catholic Church when he was in Mexico. So He's pretty big into what he
believes. We decided we were going to talk to him frankly and boldly. We talked
about my father’s favorite thing in the world: There is a law. We have our
agency to obey the law. With every decision comes a consequence. We read with
him 2 Nephi 2:27 and Alma 34:31-35. We asked him if he had a desire to know the
truth about if our church is the right path for him. He said, "Yes"
then we invited him to do two things. 1.) To pray and ask God for knowledge of
the truth. 2) To follow as the Savior wrote in John 7:17 and to live the
principles we teach. He said he would. We addressed a problem that we know he
had with the Word of Wisdom. We committed him to stop doing what he did. I told
him I’d even give up some things in my life. So we are doing this together.
He's been free of doing it for at least 5 days. They are sure now he's on the
verge of joining the church. It was awesome to watch. I know he will join the
church some day.
What a week!
I’m in a new area with a new companion. We are both new to the area and the
ward. We hope we can get things rolling along. We cover all of what used to be
in the Long Beach Mission. We were told we are going to have a baptism this
week. We also have some part member families we will be teaching. We are
stoked! I'm excited! See you all soon!!
Elder Dallin M. Ollerton
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