Thursday, November 22, 2018

11/21/2018 - The Lord Really Does Bless Us for Our Diligence

Well, what a wild, wild week we had. Boy it was a long week but now we are here. SO MUCH happened this week it was crazy. So this week I am incredibly grateful for the Lord. He really does bless us when we do what he wants us to do. We have been working so hard as missionaries and the Lord really does bless us for our diligence. Just like when we do what He has asked us to do everyday. I am so grateful for my Savior I can't really explain how much I am. But I must go on to explain why

So it began last Friday when we were going to visit some YSA people in Lethbridge (our ward boundaries cover some other small towns) And every friday we go out with Bro Patterson. He is the high councilman over missionary work and a baller! I love the guy. He is from Cardston and I served in his home ward there, so we know a lot of the same people. Anyway our lesson cancelled so we were stopping by some less-active girls because we had him with us and it is really hard to get in any other time. So we decided to try someone neither me or my companion had met before but brother Patterson had. Anyway that individual left, but we found a girl from Kenya, a member who had been going to a different ward. So we visit with her, and her roommates come home a little later. Both of them are non-members and we invited them to church. They wanted to come and so we are going back this friday to teach them. 

Also Thursday we had to go take a missionary to the bus.  He went up to calgary because of a concussion and we waited for another missionary to come back out. It was awesome to pick him up and he is excited to work. We are hyped! We also began teaching another couple. We taught them about the book of mormon and read 3 Nephi 11 with them and went back yesterday to teach more. They are Catholic but have some good intent. It may take some time but they will get there. On Sunday night we also tried a guy named Jordan we tract into. He said come back monday so we went back and taught the plan of salvation. He also had some solid questions and asked what he would need to do if he were to join. So we had him read the baptismal interview questions and he said he agreed with it all except joseph smith. (he thought we worshipped him haha) So we went back again tuesday and taught the restoration and cleared up his concern about joseph smith. Anyway we are going back again tomorrow, and plan to put him on date to be baptized!!!! All in one week! It was a cool miracle. 

Anyway, there were lots and lots and lots of other miracles but I just couldn't explain them all to you! But this week was great. It goes to show this scripture is true. The Lord says in D&C 124:55 "... that you may prove yourselves unto me that ye are faithful in all things whatsoever I command you, that I may bless you, and crown you with honor, immortality, and eternal life." The principle is the Lord gives us commandments for our benefit and so we can show we want his blessings. And WHAT A BLESSING!

Brothers and Sisters I love this Gospel, it is true. But I want to invite all of you to ponder those things, the blessings we can receive when we act in faith to God's commandments (that is the most simple faith, a belief that is strong enough to test what the Lord has asked) And I would like to invite you to focus on one, a simple one. Prayer. This week pray daily and more fervently, whether it be more gratitude or telling Heavenly Father exactly how we are at this point. Whatever you feel you need, do it. I can promise you, He will listen and He will answer your prays. And as we obey we will feel happier. Love you all and hope you have a great week. You know we will #keeppounding.

Love, Elder Ollis

Friday, November 16, 2018

11/14/2018 - Quick Report

Hello!

Last week I didn’t send much of an email because we were able to go to the temple! I love the temple! The Sunday before we had a regional broadcast and Elder Holland spoke from Salt Lake. It was awesome and a very powerful talk!

So Quick report for this week. We got hammered with snow twice last week. It was wonderful. Now it is windy and Chinooking so everything is melting. It’s a wonderful time of year and I love it! Also now that Remembrance Day is over (it's a holiday to remember the veterans, everyone wears a poppy on their shirt for weeks) it's all about Christmas. So everyone is putting up trees and now it's snowing again (even though it already snowed in September).

Transfers were last week and we stayed, so I will probably do one more with Elder Sessions and then he goes and I finish up. Weird. But things are going well here.  Cool miracle, we taught a kid named Hans this week. And he came to church in our YSA ward. It was super awesome, only sad thing is he is going to the Philippines for 6 weeks. So see him next transfer. We are going to try and use our technology to the best of its ability and teach him over skype or face book messenger but we will see how that goes. Things are going, we are working hard but that's about all I got. We are always trying to find new people to teach.

Elder Ollis