12/26/2017 - I Am Serving the Lord With All My Heart

Well hello ya'll

Today is boxing day. Which means nothing back home, so here’s what it is. After Christmas everything goes on sale. It is the closest thing to black friday up here. (which we don't have in canada). But there is only like 4 stores in Cardston so we won't be doing much shopping haha

But to let you know about our week. We had zone conference thursday, did a white elephant exchange and I got a full set of golf clubs! So that happened. Then we went up to Calgary and were on exchanges with the APs and then Sunday and Christmas. It was a crazy full week and I am tired. So it was awesome, we worked hard and Christmas was the busiest day. We had an appointment every hour from 10 in the morning until 9. Full day. But it was awesome and the members treated us too well! I probably won't have to buy food this week haha. 

So to update you, Next week we have a p-day on Monday because of the new year, but only next week ok! 

Anyway, I hope you all had a merry christmas, I did. It was so nice to face time my family it really brightened my Christmas. And I am so grateful for the wonderful packages from the ward and from my family. I love you all and know I miss you, but I am serving the lord with all my heart. We had some amazing miracles this week and it is only because of our faith and diligence. They may seem small, but we met tons of members and were able to get a referral from almost every single one. It was an awesome blessing and now we just have to follow up with them. We will see how it goes.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Ollis

12/20/2017 -  Cardston Zone Conference for Christmas

12/25/2017 - Christmas Day was AMAZING!!

Post by Elder Ollis's Family:

We were blessed to be able to FaceTime with Elder Ollis on Christmas morning!  We are so grateful for the Shipley Family who shared their home with Elder Ollis and his companion so they could call home.  What a blessing it was to have our family "together" on Christmas day!  

Most importantly we were able to hear first hand just how much he LOVES IT in CARDSTON!! Some of the other things we learned about his new area:

• There are only two traffic lights in Cardston and Elder Ollis thinks that is just enough.  "Salt Lake is just way too big!"
• His current zone is the largest in the Canada Calgary Mission
• His new companion is Elder Crockett, from Pleasant Grove Utah
• He and his companion are also serving as District Leaders because only two sets of sisters serve in their district.
• He and his companion serve 5 wards in the Cardston area.
• The youth are very involved in family history and temple work.  The local high school is across the street from the Cardston Temple and the youth will print our temple names at the seminary building and cross the street to do temple work on a regular basis.
• He loves the people there already and is amazed at the number of referrals they have received, even though the vast majority of the people there are members.
• He LOVES his mission and President and Sister Miles!!

12/20 & 12/24/2017 - Two Text Messages in a Week!!

From Elder Ollis's mom:

We received two wonderful text messages this week from the kind members of Cardston who are looking after our missionary and his companion!  I can see why Elder Ollis loves Cardston so much.  He is surrounded by wonderful, thoughtful members!  Many thanks from the Ollis Family!

12/20/2017 - Dinner & cookie decorating with the Smith Family!

12/24/2017 - Christmas Eve with the Miller Family!

12/19/2017 - I'm So Grateful to Be in His Service

Hey everyone! Merry Christmas! 

Well to update you on the week. We had a super solid week and we worked hard. It snowed yesterday and I am now happy that we will actually have a white christmas in Canada! But other than that there just isn't too much that would interest you to report back. Just working with a lot of members. So our plan for christmas is this. Missionary work. We are stacking our day with appointments of no more than 45 minutes all day. So we have one about every hour. The same stuff we strive for each day of the week!!

As for that I love Cardston!!!! I am so happy to be here it is so much fun. There are some awesome members who want to help us so much. And lots of them are farmers haha. It is a different world, but I love it!! We were able to hand out hot chocolate at a ward nativity last night. It was so legit. They had chickens and sheep and a donkey and the wise men rode in on their horses! It was so fun and we got to freeze and talk to tons of people yesterday but that was mostly it. 

I am so grateful for our Savior, I love him and am so grateful to be in his service.

Elder Ollis

12/15/2017 - This is a good look at our area!

12/16/2017 - 

We cover a bunch of tiny towns. This is Aetna on the GPS. It is a booming town of about 300 (with maybe 2 non members)

12/15/2017 - USA!! USA!! So close!

12/12/2017 - I Love it Here Already!

HEY EVERYONE! 

Well another week is gone and to update you on the going ons.

So if you remember those photos I sent last week of the temple? Well, that is my area. Haha. I am now in Cardston!!! We cover 5 wards. Which is a lot. It has been quite the headache trying to figure out who is who and in what ward. But I love it here already!

12/11/2017 - My New Zone - Cardston Canada

Cardston has a population of 3000 people, and about 80% are LDS. So as you can imagine we do a lot of work through members. It is such a fun little town. I see the temple everyday, all day in fact. We live about a hundred yards from it. It is super cool. I love the people here already, our area is HUGE. In fact it touches my old area, about 45 minutes away. We have a Blood Tribe reserve that we cover and tons of farms. It goes to the US border. We actually have some members that live in the states and come to church here in Cardston. And so as you can also imagine the people are a bunch of super friendly farmers. I love it. Sundays they wear their best boots to church haha. It is so awesome. We also get like 50% off just about every store in Cardston because a member owns it haha. 

Our zone is HUGE. We never see them because they are all just too far away. We have 3 districts and 9 companionships in it and ours is the Cardston district. It is me and my comp Elder Crockett, from pleasant Grove Utah, and two sets of sisters. So we are oddly also the district leaders haha.

That is about all from me. love you all and hope you have a good week.  Elder Ollis

12/10/2017 - Cardston Temple at Night