4/23/2017 - It's the Most Rewarding Thing I Have Done in My Life

Hey everyone. So this week was bitter sweet. First the sweet. WE PICKED UP A FAMILY! We had tracted into the wife (W) a few weeks ago and were trying to get the husband (J). We stopped by thursday, and taught them the first lesson and are going back this thursday. We are super excited, they have a 3 year old daughter named (C). It was cool as well. We were talking about us and where we were from and J must have realized what church we were from because his face lit up and he told us he grew up with a member who went and served a mission as well! We are super excited. We left them with BOMs of course and they said they would read them. 

Now for the bitter. T's father is becoming a challenge. We had to push her baptism back to the 13th. But she really wants to be baptized. Her father also had an native elder come and talk to her about how if she is baptized she can't do some things. But we had her talk to a native in our ward and everything is all good. She explained that you have to go by the spirit. The spirit will warn what you can and cannot do and the same goes for all of us.

But that was mostly it for the week. We had Zone Conference, which soaked up a day, but we learned a ton and I'm excited to apply it this coming week. Something else also sad….The flames got swept. And that means all the oiler fans are all flashing their gear. But I heard a scripture for them, it goes  "fools mock, but they shall mourn."

God's work is going and we are still working. I love this Gospel so much and I am so happy to be a missionary. It is the most rewarding thing I have done in my life. T asked an interesting question sunday. She has been thinking about a mission and asked how we give up 2 years and our families, and the first thought I had was because the joy we receive from seeing peoples live change far out weighs what we are missing. I love this gospel so much. The peace, joy, and hope I receive from it are so important and so precious and I wish the world would see that. Love you all and keep spreading the word.

Also I almost forgot to mention something cool about Canada that I learned. Canada used to have paper money, but they recently switched to plastic. Anyway, on the back of the paper 20 they have a picture of a native in a boat with all types of animals and all types of food and grains. The story is that the natives know where they came from. They came across water. But it is interesting because they said in barges, not a boat, and the picture looks like a barge. Also they came with animals and tons of grain and other things to live and grow. So why don't you go read in Ether, the story matches perfectly with the brother of Jared coming here. The church is true everyone.

Elder Ollis

04/17/2017 - I Can't Really Describe How Happy I Have Been

Hey everybody,

So I don't think I will take to much time this week but all I can say is it was a good week. We had an awesome experience this week. Our investigator Dave, I might have mentioned that we were pumping the brakes because we didn't want to touch the Word of Wisdom yet. Well we met him tuesday and then again on friday and we decided to just do it. Anyway, we were really nervous because he loves his coffee and he said he loves fishing and drinkin a good beer. In fact he daily goes onto his roof to watch the sunset, drink his coffee and read his bible (and now Book of Mormon). But friday we hit the word of wisdom. And he said he would give it up! He said no problem with beer, he has already got rid of that but his coffee will be hard, but he knows he can do without it! And we put him on date for baptism for the 13th of May! 

I guess I would just like to say, the lord really has been blessing us. This area hasn't had a baptism in well over a year and we now have 2 on date. One in 2 weeks! I can't really describe how happy I have been. The lord has prepared all. Dave is a cool guy and it is cool to see how when the sister missionaries found him just at his divorce and he moved to our area and is wanting to turn to our heavenly father. He also came to church! and he said he liked it and will come next week! 

I can't really describe how happy I have been lately. I know that our heavenly father loves us, and blesses us for our efforts. 

Also this week our mission released this thing called spring fling. It is a thing we are doing where everyone in the mission gets points for certain things we do daily. Like a new investigator is 5 points, or a lesson is 4. And if we get so many our whole mission gets to go to the temple for a day. Super excited. I'm a little competitive so this is like a dream come true for me (by the way we are currently 10 points ahead of our district and probably first in our zone... no big deal though). But that is what it is like for now, enjoy life and HAPPY BIRTHDAY SQUID!

Love, 

Elder Ollis

04/10/2017 - I Love It and Am So Full of Joy This Week!

Brothers and Sisters this week was an interesting one and full of miracles so here it goes, we are jumping right in. 

First off, our investigator Tia is really truly the best and has been so prepared for the gospel.  I am so excited for her baptism that will almost surely come. We taught her wednesday and sunday. The only problem I can see is she is getting a little behind in school because she is super busy, and so her father said she can only meet us on sundays. Also she mentioned her dad isn't a fan of her going to church but he hasn't said she can't, and she turns 18 in a few months anyway. So please pray for her.

But this week she was asking us questions about how to pay for a mission because she wants to serve! Super cool, she is so ready. And one more thing, sunday we were talking about the commandments, and we were going to break up the lesson and not do all of them at once so we decided to leave out the word of wisdom. Anyway, at the end of the lesson we asked her if she had questions and she said she hasn't drank any coffee since we started meeting and she asked when we were going to talk about that! So we are like ok, and taught her the Word of Wisdom and she was excited to follow it! It really is amazing!

THE NEXT MIRACLE. We had been teaching these two investigators Alfred and Adar. They are from Sudan and the language barrier was pretty tough, and both go to school and recently got jobs, so we hadn't seen them in a while. Anyway, turns out they had another cousin move in to live with them with his family, three kids and a wife. But get this, HE IS A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!!! His family isn't but they came to church! And we are too excited because we received an amazing opportunity where we can have him talk to Adar and Alfred when we teach! It was amazing! I am so excited for what is in store.

NEXT MIRACLE! This one is especially important to me. When I got to this area I set a personal goal to work on our member missionary work. To get just one person to change their attitude and go out of their way to share the gospel, to try and be a little different. Because that is what our mission and mission president are about, as tracting here is really not successful at all. So we hit it hard. We visited our ward members in a week, invited all to share the gospel and have been following up since.  But another thing we did, that was especially unique and something only we have done, was ask individuals in the ward to share their testimony on the first sunday about missionary work. 

Now I want to remind you a couple weeks ago we visited [with some] who pretty much told us this wouldn't work and we didn't work nearly as hard as them on their missions because our mission doesn't focus on tracting and tracting only (for the record we still tract a lot, it just isn't priority) Well that was tough for me, but we pressed on and trusted in the Lord.

We invited people to bear testimony again this sunday and it was awesome, the spirit was so strong. But the miracle came after church. We were waiting for a ride to an appointment and sister P approached us. She said she needed some help, and said that when we invited her to share the gospel she knew it wasn't for her. But she said since then she felt a small urge, then at conference another, and this sacrament meeting she said there was a theme about sharing the gospel and she knew she had to do it. I was honestly blown away, I was so happy. So we are going to visit with her and set a specific way to help her because she needs some extra strength and help.

This gospel is so true! I love it and am so full of joy this week! The spirit has been amazing and I am so thankful for the blessings we have received. And I know that they are because we work hard here in the CP13. Anyway love you all and share the gospel!

In a letter to mom:  Also I almost forgot, we got to learn how to make sushi with this Japanese lady named Rose. Probably one of the nicest people I have ever met. She isn't a member and is older, like 80, so she doesn't want to change her ways.  But It is my honest opinion she will accept it in the next life.

Yes, the guys from sudan are interesting, this is why the language barrier is so tough. They can speech arabic, but can't read or write it. Very little English, but struggle to read it. But they do have their tribal language that probably a total of 500 people speak in the world. Super interesting right!

04/03/2017 - So Please, Just Share It!

Hello Brothers and Sisters! What an excellent General Conference. That is all I can say. So this week was hard for me. Honestly I was so excited for conference I sometimes struggled to focus. Nothing really happened, the work is still going, most people were gone all week because of spring break but people are back now so the work should pick up. Also here in Canada when it starts to get warm people just throw off their coats and wear shorts, so lots of people get sick because it isn't quite that warm yet. So that also slowed us. But this conference was so interesting and so needed. So that is what I would like to talk about. 

If you want to know what my favorite talk is, I have to admit I don't think I could pick. Never have I been so ready and excited for conference in my life and it surely helped me understand and receive answers to questions. But those things I don't really want to share. They have to do with me and the Lord’s work here.

But there is one thing I took from conference that I feel like I should share. That is first and foremost, God is our loving Heavenly Father. That is the first thing we teach in preach my gospel but in my opinion one of the most important. He loves us enough to have sent his son so we can return to him. Now we all have heard that so many times but I invite you to think about it in a new light. Our Heavenly Father sent Jesus Christ, to save us. Simply that, yet still more profound than anything we comprehend. And to add a thought I had about the atonement…Christ suffered all, he has felt everything.

I was reading in Matthew this week and I had a thought that kind of put the atonement in a little better perspective. I thought about Judas, the apostle who betrayed the Son of Man. In the scriptures he is warned of the awful torment and pain he will experience by betraying Christ, but after he does betray him he realizes his mistake and tries to get the Pharisees to take back the money.  Of course they don't and tell Judas to live with his sin. And shortly after He goes and hangs himself. As I thought about what he had done, and the incredible sorrow Judas must have felt, the magnitude of his sin, I once again thought of Christ. Brothers and sisters I don't think there is a sin lower than what Judas had done, but even our Savior Jesus Christ would have had to feel that. Jesus, our Savior, has felt all, even Judas’s very betrayal of the Son of Man. So if there is any moment any of you ever feel alone, don't ever think that again. There is NOTHING, we can do that we cannot have help through.. because he knows. He has felt the betrayal of even Jesus Christ. Now think about that. Think about that hope that gives you to try with all your might each day to just use that atonement.

That is what I took from conference. The joy we receive from this gospel is so unique and so profound. We have the true gospel, restored by our prophet joseph smith. So brothers and sisters after general conference I thought of all you people at home. Who have the gospel. Then I thought about all those people I see everyday and how, from what we learned in conference, we have the medicine to help all the people we meet. And how I ache to think that when I was home I never shared that message with anyone. The message that they are ok, that no matter how crappy their life is now, everything will be better eventually, and that is because of Jesus Christ. So listen to me, if you have read this far in my email please read just a little farther. Please, please, please don't keep the truth to yourself. I sit here as a servant of our savior, Jesus Christ and I invite you to just share the message with someone. I don't care if you are shy, if you don't think it is for you, if you don't have non member friends, if you don't talk to anyone than your family, I have heard it all. But it all comes down to one fact, it isn't about you. It isn't what you want, none of this life is. It was prepared for us to grow, to return to our heavenly father because he loves us. It is a mere moment in eternity.        

Brothers and sisters I want to bear you my testimony that our heavenly father loves you, each of you. He sent his son below all, and I mean everything, to allow us to return. We don't belong here forever, so please pray for opportunities to share just a glimmer of hope with someone, and pray for the strength to share, because I know he will provide you with both. I love this gospel. I can't really put words to how grateful I am for Jesus Christ. And for Joseph Smith, who went against the world to bring the simple truths and hope of the gospel. So please, just share it!