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

12/4/2018 - I Love Being Exhausted for the Lord. It is Worth It!

Hey everyone.

Well sorry to surprise you on a tuesday, but P-day was moved for this week only. But to recap our week. WE DID SO MUCH! and to give you a taste I am just going to give you a run down of the week. I usually don't do this but here it goes. Thursday we had Zone conference. We were visited by Elder Anderson of the seventy and he was great. What an inspired man. He shared about our desire, he said that if our desires are aligned with the Lord we can achieve what he wants for us. It was awesome because our mission is doing so much right now to get 42 baptisms this month. Which we have never done. We are all working to get a "white Christmas". There is so much energy and excitement. Pres Keung even sent an email to all the stake presidents in the mission to ask them to add one or 2 baptisms this month. It has been awesome!! 

11/29/2018 - Elder Ollis with Brother Heninger,
a missionary who served with his dad

Later that night we visited with the Heningers, a member family in our ward. It was cool as we were talking Brother Heninger mentioned something about his mission. I asked where he served and he said SACRAMENTO! I got excited and said my dad served there and Brother Heninger asked when he served there. Well I couldn't remember the years but I said it was right in that spot where a year and a half was standard. He says that's when he served too! It was super cool because after I asked if he remembered and Elder Ollis and he did! Haha it was super cool. He said he remembered my dad was a heck of a missionary! So that was super cool. Also we got a picture after and when I stood up Brother Heninger said I was a lot taller than my Dad! Haha I laughed at that one. But that was such a cool experience. 

Friday we did some service in the morning and then worked with our High Councilor over missionary work in our YSA ward by visiting some people, and then we drove up to Calgary for an MLC with Elder Anderson. It was awesome. Got to hear from him twice and it was great! Then we spent the night in Calgary and drove down in the morning. We worked all day and then attended a Stake Leadership meeting that our Stake Pres invited us to, and then we went to the adult session. It was awesome we met another Seventy! Elder Sexton of the Seventy was there for the meeting. He was awesome and had some amazing stories about missionary work. He was so awesome to listen to and I know he loved us! 

Anyway, there was a lot of build up for Sunday! We had been coordinating with our Stake President, President Stewart, to have President Keung ask the stake members during stake conference who they wish was with them at the conference and text the name to our number. It was legendary! Our phone blew up and we have had to work the past few days to get all them organized so missionaries can contact them and organize them to wards so the ward leaders can contact them. It was A LOT of work and the total was 100 referrals!!!!!!!!!!! It was crazy! After the meeting we had the coolest experience, we were talking to p\Pres Keung about a few things and President Stewart and Elder Sexton approached us. Well Elder Sexton said he felt so good about the missionaries in our stake and loved what we have been doing! He was so giddy! We were the first people he talked to after the meeting! He then goes on to say we are going to quadruple our baptisms this month! IT WAS SO COOL! Anyway we have been tirelessly working none stop and it has been insane. But that was the week, full of miracles and blessings and the work is rolling forward. I love this gospel and I love being exhausted for the Lord. It is worth it!

Love, Elder Ollis

12/4/2018 - Photo from Sister Keung's Facebook
Spending P-day with a few missionaries, including Elder Ollis
and his companion Elder Sessions

11/28/2018 - I Know This Work is True

Crazy week. To be honest once again I don't know where the time went. Time is truly flying. Well not much  to report, or really I can't remember. Last wednesday we picked up a new person to teach which was awesome. But yeah. We just put in work this week. We met with a lot of less actives and are trying to get them back to church. It was super fun. We also did a lot of door knocking. President wants each of the missionaries to street contact or tract for an hour daily! I am pumped because I think a lot of our missionaries need that! It puts hair on your chest for sure! Haha I am super excited for it. 

We also had a leadership meeting which was super awesome! Such inspiration from President Keung to help with our mission. We as a mission have been working on a thing called 1+1 which is a new way to work with ward council. It was cool because  the changes in elders quorum and relief society and ward council reflect it perfectly. So it was great! We have seen lots of success with it. But that is all we got. Things are going good. We had interviews with President and it was great to see him, I am so grateful to have a mission President like him. I know this work is true and I love being a part of it. Hope you all have a great week!

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

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

10/30/2018 - The Lord Really Does Bless Us

Well I will keep it short but hello everyone!

This week was good. We saw some great miracles!! It was also hard because that is how life is. You have to taste the bitter so you can know the sweet. But we worked hard this week. Sunday we held a district fast to find more people to teach. It has definitely been the focus of our work lately. And the blessings came yesterday. We were trying a few new things and we received a text from a less active lady in our ward saying she wants to start coming back to church and asked us for a book of mormon. So we immediately went to drop it off at her work. It was a cool miracle but didn’t stop there. Anyway while we were in the parking lot a guy yells at us from his truck asking for a book of mormon too! He was a Hutterite man and we were able to give him a book of mormon! (Hutterites are a religious group that are in southern alberta, they immigrated from germany to canada and live on colonies and basically live the law of consecration. They are deeply religious and very closed to other religions, but very friendly people and have ridiculously good food. Their chickens and eggs are HUGE) So that was a huge miracle also! And again last night, we got a text from a member in our YSA ward saying that he was bringing 3 non-members to our FHE. We weren't planning on going to it this week so we set up splits and I went to our other appointments. It was a super amazing night. The Lord really does bless us, I have a testimony that fasting really works! 

That’s all I’ve got! Elder Ollis

10/23/2018 - My Simple Invitation is to do Likewise

Merry Christmas everyone!! 

Nah I am just kidding you. Just thought it would be a different way to start the weekly email. And to my wonderful fans at home. I sure do love and appreciate you. But things are going good up here in the great white north. This week the temperature was amazing. It was a nice 18 degrees (64.5 farenheit) most of the week it was awesome. Last week we were able to go on exchanges with our district leader in Coaldale. It was a lot of fun, I stayed in Lethbridge and brought Elder Schmidt here. It was a great exchange and we put in some good work. We were able to talk to lots of people this week and we are going to see some miracles soon. I know it. Not much else to report. The man we are teaching named phil has been gone quite a bit and seems to dodge us lately so we will probably stop teaching him. So we are back at it to find more people to teach. We have great spirits and we love this work, I know my Savior will bless us. 

I have really come to love the book of Mormon. It is such a wonderful gift we have been given. President Nelson came and visited us back in june and invited everyone to read it daily. I took that to heart and don't ever miss a day without reading a little from the book of Mormon. I really know the book of Mormon has answers. Countless times I have had yearnings of the heart for answers to questions and the book of Mormon always seems to answer them. My simple invitation is to do likewise. Read and ponder the book of Mormon. Study it out in your mind. Read parts and pieces based on what is on your mind and draw out what you want from it. I know and can testify the book of Mormon can help. It is true and I love it. 

But that's all I got, Crazy though I hit my 21-month mark this week. Love you all!

Elder Ollis

10/16/2018 - We Have Had a Solid Week

HEY EVERYONE!

Well not going to lie this week flew by. that keeps happening. But the news of the week, Cannibus is legal in Canada tomorrow. So that should be interesting. But other than that we have had a solid week. We have been putting in work. We had a zone conference last week in Medicine hat, I have never been there so it was cool to visit. It is a 2 hour drive strait east of lethbridge through farms. So I have some great photos this week!!!!! I love farms!!!

But yeah things are going good, we are working to find people to teach right now. We weren't able to meet our person we are teaching this week, he works a night shift so it's tricky but we will keep working hard to find more. Good news was we were able to get a new WML in our ysa ward and he is ready to get things moving. Which will be a huge help and we already have a great ward so we are excited for the chance we will have to work with him. Also he said if there is anything we want to do on our pday he is down to take us. So that got me excited because there is a small town a little outside of lethbridge that apparently has Sturgeon, like those big huge fish. So definitely want to go see some wild sturgeon. But things are going good. We were able to pick up a few people we are hoping to teach this week through talking on the streets and tracting so we hope it will work out! But thats about all I got for ya this week!

Elder Ollis

10/13/2018 - Elder O and Elder S having dinner with the Nickel family

Sturgeon Farm Sign

10/09/2018 - Moral of the Story is You Never Know What Will Happen

What a great week we had up in the great white north. We woke up today with an inch or two of snow and you know I am excited! I also bought a new coat last week, didn't need one, but it was an unbelievable sale and I couldn't pass it up. So I am double prepared for winter (you can't have too many coats).

But we had a solid week of meetings it seemed like. We had MLC, which was great. Then we went on an exchange with the Assistants. So those are always super fun. And then General conference. It was awesome! I loved pretty much every talk. So wonderful we were able to hear from a prophet of God. I don't have too much to say about it, other than I got a lot of answers to questions that I needed and felt completely nourished by the word of God! And 12 new temples! Holy Cow, we are going to hit 200 by next year!!! That is amazing. We also had a cool experience. There is a couple we have been trying to teach for a little while. They are from mexico and super busy, but we introduced them to some members in our ward that live near them, that are also from mexico. It was a super cool connection! And the members brought the wife to general conference sunday! It was a great miracle! Pray that we can teach them! We hope to have a (baptism) white Christmas!

Also another cool thing I wanted to share because it blew me away. We had dinner saturday with a YSA kid who actually served in this mission. Like he served here maybe 5 or 6 months ago. Anyway he is going to school here and wanted to take us to dinner. So we were talking and come to find out he transferred into Lethbridge the transfer I left, about a year ago. It was cool because he told me about a man they taught that I found while in Lethbridge and he is now active again! I totally had forgotten about that guy but it was a great miracle just finding him. A year ago Elder Woltron and I felt we should go tract what we thought was the North part of our area and ran into a less active member who said we could come back. We found out after that wasn't our area, so we went back with the missionaries that covered there and passed him off to be taught. Anyway, I left about a week after this happened, and the former missionary we had dinner with came into that other area we accidentally tract in. Anyway the guy has been coming to church ever since I met him. What a cool miracle! Anyway, moral of the story is you never know what will happen. I love this gospel and I know the Lord blesses us for what we do. I know as we diligently seek to follow the spirit He will guide us through life.

Much love, Elder Ollis

10/02/2018 - Sad to Say Goodbye to Calgary, But On to a New One

Well everyone this week was crazy.

So I did get transferred. Sad to say goodbye to calgary but on to a new one. Back to Lethbridge. so I am down here with Elder Sessions, which is cool. I served around him in Calgary, and Lethbridge a year ago so about 9 months in all, and now we are companions. It's sweet. He is a ginger from Logan Utah. So the area I am in has 3 wards. We cover a YSA ward that covers towns 3 minutes away, and 2 family wards, the Fairmont ward and Six Mile wards. It is a lot of fun. So it isn't the same area I was in last time. I was in Lethbridge but it is about as close as you can get. There  is a road that goes north to south in Lethbridge and splits the town. A year ago I was on the south west side, now I am in the south east. Literally across the street. Haha it is so fun and I love it down here. Weird that this will likely be my last area. 

Anyway, not to much to report, still trying to figure things out down here. We have awesome wards that help out a lot. And YSA is really different. Super weird since I am the same age as a lot of the ward and it's just more fun. Plus now we won't have to pass off all our investigators to YSA because we are the YSA!!!!  But loving life right now working hard and loving the Lord!! 

Sorry no photos but love you all!

09/25/2018 - I Love the Book of Mormon and the Peace I Find In It

Hey everyone. Well we had a good week here. 

We worked hard this week. Saw some cool stuff happen. We got a referral Saturday and tried it that afternoon and again that evening. We were able to get in and teach the Restoration to a lady. It was super cool, she had some awesome questions and had seemed really prepared but she wasn't interested in learning more. So we left her with a book of mormon and hope and pray she reads. But we keep our hopes up to find more people to teach. 

Not much more to update you about, we have been going and loving this work. This week are transfers, I have no Idea what is going to happen. Currently there has been a mistake maybe from the mission office emailing everyone their areas? But we have been told those could be wrong. I have no Idea what is going on. I could be going back to lethbridge but that might not be right. 

As for that I just wanted to share a little testimony of the Book of Mormon. I love Nephi as he shares his testimony of the words that are written. He says " And now, my beloved brethren, and also jew, and all ye ends of the earth, hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men they should do good." (2 Nephi 33:10)  I know all we need to do is read the book and we really can find out that they are the words of Christ. I love the Book of Mormon and the peace I find in it. I encourage you to continue to read, and come closer to Christ. But most importantly share that with others. I love this gospel and love coming closer to him. 

Elder Ollis

9/18/2018 - I Want it For Our Members!

Hey everyone. Hope you are having a great week. 

First things first. Well if BYU is beating top 10 teams maybe I won't make the start at QB. But I guess we will keep training and practicing and hope for the best. Ha ha

But we had a good week. We were out and about and all over the city this week. We met a lot of members and did missionary work like missionaries do. (sorry guys I am slowly getting less creative on telling you on what we did). We still struggle to find investigators. I don’t know why. We are very diligent and are always working. Our investigator Adeniyi, who I have mentioned before, has been in London and is now going to BC. So we don’t see him much. We were on exchanges yesterday and Elder Johnson found a new investigator. Our Mandarin missionaries found her and we got the return appointment so I have not met her yet. I really want to get people to church. I want it for our members because I know they would do awesome if we could get someone there!  But we keep exercising faith and we will find!

We had a leadership meeting last wednesday that was really good and I learned a lot that will help me. We were able to help out saturday with the Calgary food bank food drive. It's a big deal and the church does it every year. We collected food across the whole city for the food bank. The estimated cost of food collected was over $800,000 of food. It was super cold but a lot of fun. Yeah, it even snowed this week and the temp has been down to 0 Celsius almost the whole week. We are expecting it will stay that way for another week. We are working hard and the Lord will bless us. But that is about all I got for this week. Sure hope you have a good one.

09/11/2018 - Elder Ollis and Elder Johnson cooking dogs at the 4th Ward Corn Bust

09/15/2018 - Collecting food for the Calgary Food Bank

9/11/2018 - Visiting Authorities...Definitely the Highlight of the Week!

Hey everyone. Well had a good week this week. To update on what happened. 

Saturday we met as a whole mission in Calgary to meet Elder Gong!!! It was super cool to have the whole mission in one building. We had a great meeting. We met Elder Evanson (70 over this region of the world. He's from Lethbridge), Elder Clayton, (president of the seventy), Gifford Nielson (of the 70, played QB at BYU, replaced by steve young) and Elder Gong. It was amazing. We got to shake all their hands and found out Elder Gong's wife is from Taylorsville. Elder Vea and I were hyped, gotta represent the Hood! Anyway it was a fantastic meeting. Elder Nielson's talk was awesome, he started off by telling us that by shaking hands he could tell who was in and who wasn't in. He said most of us were in. Then proceeded to tell us that we needed to be all in. It was such a good talk. Also that guy is HUGE! Gosh I swear he was like 7 feet tall. Then Elder Clayton shared some wonderful insights to help us in our missionary efforts and Elder Gong finished with a wonderful talk about the Doctrine of Christ and using the spirit in our efforts. He stressed being yourself and allowing your experiences and personalities to connect with those we meet. It was great. Then later that night we heard from them again with a special meeting for all investigators, LA and recent converts. It was a great day. That was definitely the highlight of the week! 

Then on sunday we found out there is a new family in the ward, and the husband plays for the Calgary Flames!!!!! Let's go. We are stoked and hope to go visit them SOON!  Just wanted to share a last thought of the week. Sometimes we are silly and frustrated with ourselves. I know all of us have those moments. But we also have those moments where we feel the spirit. We can't deny them. As we reflect on them it helps us to see how the spirit works and how we can gain that peace and happiness we need. I encourage you to reflect on those moments and try to replicate them.

Elder Ollis

09/08/2018 - All 184 Calgary Missionaries together to hear from Elder Gong!

09/11/2018 - Lambo of the Week

09/11/2018 - Love this painting by our Ward Mission Leader

9/4/2018 - I Still Love This Work So Much!

Hello everyone. 

Well we had a good week. Kinda sad week but that happens to the best of us. We had one last week where people are gone on vacation, school starts and things are finally settling down for the year. So not too much to report, but it will be a fantastic week coming up. Our investigators were all busy this week so we will see when we can meet them next. One of them was in London on business.  Our “golden boy” from last week dropped us and said he wasn’t interested anymore. But we are keeping our heads up and getting to work like always. If you remember the baptism we had for Josh (see 6/19 post), well his step dad isn’t a member yet and he is finally not working all the time so next week we are hoping to go back and teach him.  They are awesome and he was at church Sunday.  So that is our positive moment of the week! Elder Johnson and I are working hard, it is enjoyable, and I still love this work so much! 

We have a great week planned. Excited for Saturday! I forgot to tell you but Elder Gong is visiting our mission on Saturday! So we will see and hear from him.  The Book of Mormon musical is coming to town in a couple of weeks. We aren’t allowed to go near the play, but we are encouraged to just be out and have Books of Mormon visible. And that will raise questions from people and allow us to teach about what the Book of Mormon really is.  So we might go downtown to blitz with the book of Mormon!  So that is all we got this week. Love you all!