01/23/2019 - The Last Email

Well hello everyone, I can't believe this is the last email. But let me tell you about the week. We worked hard and talked to as many people as we could. It was cool, last thursday we went and taught seminary. We started and taught early morning and then two more classes right after. It was super fun! We talked about missionary work and had just tons of fun with the kids in the class. The teachers who invited us were in our ward and they love us! It was so much fun to be with the youth. One of the things that we had them do was pull out their phones and scroll through their friends list on social media with a question in mind of "who is the Lord preparing to receive a message of the Restored Gospel." It was so cool to have all of the youth come up with a name and then message that person! And there were miracles! We talked to one of the youth who said she is going to bring her friend to church in a couple of weeks! It is so cool how we are entitled to revelation and the Lord will give it to us when we are willing to act upon it! It was tons of fun! 

Another cool miracle, I mentioned what we did for our stake conference, well one name that was sent in was Liz. Liz is a less active who I taught while I was in Lethbridge for the first time. It was cool, because last night we got a lesson set up with the family (the nickels! ) who sent in her name. So we were able to go teach Liz and pass her off to the missionaries that currently cover my old area. It was such a cool miracle to be able to teach someone I knew over a year ago. It was fun! But mostly that was the week! We worked hard and it has been bitter sweet. 

But I just wanted to write a few more things, just to share how I have been feeling, some things I have learned and a little testimony. But just keep into account I am a man of few words. So don't expect anything crazy! haha. But I just wanted to say I am so incredibly grateful for this experience of serving a mission. I have never experienced anything like it. I have learned so much. I have learned more than ever that Jesus is the Savior of the World. He did suffer so that I, and you, can have Him there every step of the way. I am humbled that He would trust me to have done just a little of His work here in Canada. I feel His love everyday. I have left it all on the Altar of Sacrifice and know that I have only been able to do what He asked of me because of the help I received. I love the people here, I will be so sad to leave some of the most faithful people I have ever met. I am grateful for the leaders that I have been given. I know that each of them were called of God and placed in my path to show me the way. Pres Miles, Keung and countless district and Zone leaders each taught me a lot of what the Lord wants for me. I know that the Book of Mormon is God’s word. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I am forever grateful for his work in bringing forth the greatest book. I know that the Book of Mormon can help us draw closer to Christ. My heart is full, I can't really express through email the feelings and thoughts of two years of service to the Lord, but I do know these few things. I know that the next step is scary, but I have my Savior, and I know that with His help it can be better. I love this work. I do not want to leave it, but the Spirit has impressed upon me that there are other things and other plans for me. I look forward to the next step and will never forget this short experience in the North. I love you all and leave you with these things in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

01/16/2019 - You Know We Will Keep Going

Well hello everyone. 

Man time is flying, because it is another pday and I only have one more pday to go. So to update you on the week. It was a blurr. We just worked hard all week. It was nice, we had zone conference monday. It was an awesome conference and had interviews after. It was the last one and I learned a lot. It was super fun and sad to say goodbye to some missionaries I was good friends with. 

Sunday we presented a new missionary challenge to our YSA ward, it was awesome because it was from our bishopric, they are the best! We also had 2 cool miracles sunday. We had been working with a member family named the Olivers, they are so awesome. Anyway they sent in the name of a lady during stake conference and they have been making steps. Invited her to meet missionaries and pray for a week and we heard that she was praying and she told the Olivers she has felt relief since she is praying. It was super awesome! And another lady in our ward, sis Hironaka, we met her and her family this week (ok they are all skiers and we got along great) and we asked them who they felt the Lord was preparing for baptism. Well they thought about it and Sis Hironaka talked to us at church and said someone came to mind and she will devise a plan. She said give me two weeks and we will get a lesson. It was awesome! Then Monday to Tuesday I was in Stirling on my last exchange. I was with Elder Moore, he's an awesome guy. Work in Stirling is a little different. Stirling is about 1250 people there and 4 wards. So tons, I mean tons of members. It was a lot of fun we worked hard and we learned a ton. So that was the week in a wrap hope you all have a good week, you know we will keep going. 

Love ya, Elder O

01/02/2019 - Elder Ollis and companion, Elder Session in Waterton 

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01/09/2019 - I Love This Gospel!

well hello everyone,

Solid week up here in the north. Last week I didn't send an email because a group of YSA kids wanted to take me to Waterton before I leave the mission. It was a lot of fun. It was crazy windy and super cold and the whole town is closed for the winter. But it was so beautiful. The water looked like the ocean because it was so windy and the waves were huge. Yeah it was like hurricane speed winds, you could barely get out of the car and if you jumped it would blow you a foot or more. It was super fun. We have some video's but my phone is being silly and I can't send them. But things were great. 

We went up to calgary thursday for MLC, my last one. It was a lot of fun, then we did an exchange with our assistants. It was cool. After that we had another exchange with our district leader out inTaber. I learned a ton, it is kinda sad I only have one more exchange on my mission. It's really sad. But things are going well, we saw some cool miracles and I know it's because of our dilligence. We were able to talk with a member about Blake and set a plan to get him baptized, it won't happen this weekend but we will shoot for the future. But another miracle. Our ward mission leader's daughter got home from the mission last week and asked the granddaughter in that family to meet with the missionaries and be baptized. So we went over for dinner and taught the first discussion and we got permission to continue to teach and she will be baptized! It is exciting! We also found another new person this week, named Gabriel. He was at the lesson with Caroline and we gave him a book of mormon and invited him to learn more. Solid week, keep plugging along and I love this gospel!

12/25/2018 - It Was A Christmas Miracle!

Well Merry Christmas everyone!

So we got super fat yesterday. You would not believe how much we ate. It was truly amazing. My stomach was blessed to be able to hold that much food. We started our Christmas morning having breakfast with our Bishop in Fairmont ward, then had several more visits then lunch, it was a full on turkey mashed potatos ham and everything for lunch! Then we had a bunch more visits until dinner and had another wonderful ham and potatoes dinner at our Stake Presidents house. Then we had a few more visits and ended the night! Lets just say when I fell asleep all I dreamed about was eating and visiting more people. So waking up this morning I was pooped and surprisingly hungry. 

But yeah things are going good. Got to talk to the family yesterday so that was alright! Glad things back home seem to be good! But we had an awesome week, our wards treated us so nice. I love this area so much and we have the most wonderful people here. That's all I got for ya! Oh actually one quick thing. We have been teaching a less active gentlman and haven't been able to get him to church, he hasn'' gone to church since he was 17 and he currently is in his 70's. Well we got him to go to a live nativity our stake put on and then he came to church sunday! It was a christmas miracle!

12/25/2018 - Last Call before Returning!

We were able to FaceTime with Elder Ollis today and it was the highlight of our Christmas Day! The visit was way too short but it was good to see him and hear his voice.  He was hesitant to discuss coming home and wants to stay focused to the end. He loves the work he is doing in Lethbridge and is busy with the work! We appreciate the Nickel Family who fed Elder Ollis and his companion! They are such kind people and sent us some great pictures. Definitely the best Christmas present ever!!

12/19/2018 - Merry Christmas!

Well hello everyone,

We had a crazy week. Can't even begin to tell you what we were able to do. But it was a great week. Transfer calls came out last night. And transfers are tomorrow. I kinda figured but I am staying and finishing my last transfer here in Lethbridge. Which I am excited for. I really love this area and we have some amazing people here. Much to our surprise however, my companion is staying. So we are going to do 3 transfers together. So that is pretty surprising. But that's how it goes. 

But on to the week. We had an exchange with our district leader out in Taber. Finally, we had a crazy transfer with that area, had one new companion, then the one that had been there got a concussion and got emergency transferred to calgary because of it and now there are two basically brand new missionaries there. They are doing awesome. Taber was a cool place, a little town with lots of members and it is also known for it's corn. It has some pretty good corn that is grown in Taber. So that  was great. Then we were a blur of things that we have been doing. Not really sure what but we were super busy rushing around, talking to as many people as we can and meeting with members. It has been awesome. 

We also taught Blake sunday night. It was amazing. We told him to pray if baptism was right last week and he did. So at our lesson we followed up and he said at church he had this feeling that it was right. It was awesome. So we put him on date for December 30th! Then monday night we had another lesson with him and we had to bump his date back because of the holidays to January 12th. But he is still getting ready for baptism and we have a solid ward that supports him. He went to mutual last night and we popped in to see if he and another person we are teaching made it and he was loving it! But yeah. That is the cool highlights of the week. I will keep it short since I will get to talk to you all tuesday! Merry Christmas!

12/12/2018 - The Lord Works in Miraculous Ways

Well hello everyone,

So this last week was a good one. We have been working harder and harder. And we saw some cool miracles. First we have seen countless miracles since our stake conference from what we were able to do. It is such a cool experience we were able to be a part of and I would like to share a few. 

First off, our end total of names referred was 110! 110 people that were inspired names to be contacted. It was super cool. But one thing we noticed was people are not afraid to refer someone. Most lessons we go to know we get a name to try after. Which is so cool! So don't be afraid to send a name to the missionaries. Also this one is super cool. Our missionaries and us worked hard all week and organized the names into wards and reported them in ward council so the ward council can make specific direct assignments on how to contact. It was quite the coordination between us and our missionaries, and us and President Stewart. 

Well one name we brought was Mike. Right when I said the name I could see that the bishopric recognized the name and they were interested ( it was clear that they had tried but seemed to be at a dead end) Well, my next comment was that we have had contact with him. President Keung and Sister Keung went and visited him this last week. Apparently Pres Keung had served his mission with Mike's father and his father (from australia) told President Keung to go visit him. Well when I said this everyone was blown away. After Ward council our ward secretary asked us when the Keungs contacted him, so we found out and he told us Mike had text him the next day. Which is a miracle because they hadn't contacted him in a LONG time. It was such a cool miracle! Let's just say there are no coincidences, first that President Keung came all the way from new Zealand to see Mike, second that someone felt impressed to refer him and third that we were able to connect the dots with someone else that talked to him. The Lord works in miraculous ways. We are working on developing this story further but we will let you know how it goes. 

But another miracle this week we were able to begin teaching 4 new people. One already dropped us but we were able to teach Blake finally. His parents are members but are going through some tough times and he isn't baptized. We had a lesson at a member's house and he came and we talked about baptism with Blake ( he comes to church every week). Well we are teaching him now and we are going to hopefully put him on date for the end of December. So pray for us. I am going to cut this short now since we just got a call to go help someone change a flat tire but I love you all. I know this gospel is true and the Lord is at the works. He can help

Elder Ollis