06/13/2017 - We Had An Incredible Miracle

Hey All!

So this week was a bit tiring. Mostly because I can't really breathe and I have been kinda sick most of the week. But we don't rest so I hope it goes away! We were cutting some lady’s lawn wednesday with hand clippers (no idea why she wanted it done that way) but all the pollen kinda made me swell up. My throat was swollen and my eyes were on fire and I have been trying to get over it since then. But this week was a good one and we had an incredible miracle. 

Saturday we had an appointment with a less active lady we had been teaching. Well we went and had an excellent lesson as we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and she bore her testimony about her conversion. It was cool. But the best part is we got there and she told us she had a friend who is here from Vietnam, she is spending the summer and hoping to get a teaching job here to stay permanently. So Kathy had told her we were coming over and she said she wanted to join. Sure enough she came and sat and we were able to teach her. Got a new investigator! We don't know her name, because it is crazy and her English isn't very good.

But the second miracle came the next day. We committed Kathy to come to church and she said she would have to hurry through some work to make it. Well sure enough Sunday comes and she made it to sacrament meeting! …and so did her friend! We were talking after and she said there wasn't that much work for her to do and we told her it was because she prayed for help to get to church. It was really cool. But that was our week.

Wanted to thank you all for the birthday wishes. To be honest I nearly forgot about it, if it wasn't for you all. And I didn't really do anything for it so no pictures. But love you all and miss you tons! 

Love, Elder Ollis

06/06/2017 - The Lord Really Does Bless Us

Hello everyone, 

06/02/2017 - Retrainers Meeting

So this week was LONG! But was a good week. Lets just say however that 8 days with no P-day was hard! It was weird yesterday waking up and going to work again, this whole week was weird. But Let’s get down to it. So the week started off good, we were out and about on foot this week. We did our Book of Mormon class Thursday and didn't get as many people as we would have liked but it will grow. Hopefully quickly. Friday we went to retrainers meetings so that soaked up most of the day. But we got to see President and Sister Miles, which is always good.

Also interesting fact about what I am doing right now, we are being filmed by the Calgary news. They are doing something about the library and we happened to be here. They also interviewed one of the sister missionaries. So that’s fun. Some guy has a camera right behind me.

But anyway, I thought Monday would be hard with the Pday change but we were blessed, a lot. It was really cool. We did planning in the morning and realized we had some time to fill and we just prayed for some service opportunities. And sure enough about 30 minutes later we get a text with some service for us to do. The Lord really does bless us. I am grateful for Monday. I thought it would be hard but I just kinda changed my attitude and tried to talk to everyone and we ended up picking up 3 potentials in a day. Which is something we really needed and hadn't done in over 3 weeks. So things will pick up. I am super excited to get back to work. I just know that the Lord will bless us. We just need to be better. That simple.

Love you all. Elder Ollis

In a letter to dad: Also I have a funny story to tell you. You will appreciate. We were at a part member family for supper last night. The husband, R isn't a member but is super nice and a really cool guy. One of those people it just kills you because they aren't interested but would be an excellent member. But we were with the mandarin speaking missionaries because we do a week where they come with us to supper. Anyway. We were leaving the family with prayer and Elder Chen, from Taiwan was asked to say it in Mandarin. While he was praying, the daughter about 3 years old, suddenly in the middle of the prayer bursts into speaking what she thought was Chinese. It was one of the funniest things I have heard. R apologized for the slight racism.

T is doing well. She can't be baptized. Her parents won't let her until she is 18, in December.  But we keep meeting with her. And she has a STRONG desire to serve a mission. Which is cool. I am super sad I won't be the one to baptize her though.

05/29/2017 - We Had An Awesome Miracle

Hey everyone. So this week was interesting, not much happend so I will be short. We had the car. So we were visiting a lot of people we struggle to get to on foot because it is so far. We tracted a lot. Not much happened though. The big news is we had zone conference this week and turns out from now on, starting next week we have P-day on tuesdays. Not sure how I feel about that but I trust that it was prayed over and was inspired. 

Other than that we had an awesome miracle. Yesterday we visited with T. She had previously been kinda scared about baptism and was unsure. Well we started talking and she handed me a paper with the plan for what she wants her baptism to be like. All the talks and prayers and songs set in stone and said she wanted this! It was super cool. So this time it will be June 10th. As for that there isn't much more. But have a good week everyone!

Elder Ollis

05/11/2017 - "Posterity Picture" on Transfer Day
Left: Elder Miller, Center: Elder Ollis, Right: Elder Wiwchar

05/22/2017 - I Know There is a Family Here for Us to Teach

Hey everyone. 

Well this week was interesting. It was a tough one. Me and Elder Wiwchar (absolutely none of you are going to pronounce that right) have been working hard. It is so different to have a new missionary, he is a good elder and is excited to work, so that is what we are doing. It is pretty funny though, and honestly crazy how much I have noticed he follows my lead and does the things I do. I only hope that I can be a good example and help him learn. 

It is kinda tough though, we are struggling to find people. We put in hours tracting this week and picked up only one really drunk guy who will probably go off on anti-mormon stuff as the typical. And we are struggling to visit with members. And lastly during ward council we needed approval for a book of mormon study class, literally that is all we needed. We had a flyer, a lesson time and date all set, and had a strategy to get people there, but we were told to wait a week with no explanation.  Frustrating, but we are keeping out heads down and working. I know that there is a family here for us to teach. 

We did have a cool miracle. It wasn't exactly us but we were affected by it. This week the spanish sisters were tracting in our area. And they tracted into this family from Africa. They said they were from our church and the man stopped and said he believes in Jesus Christ as well. He had moved here because he wasn't free to believe that where he is from. So they went in and had a testimony meeting basically with him and left him with a BOM and a restoration pamphlet. They are an incredibly poor family but we ended up getting the referral for the family. It was about the best news we had all week and we have an appointment with them tuesday. We are pretty excited about that. 

But that has been our week. I know our savior blesses us. Regardless of the times we feel like nothing goes right, our savior is always there. He is blessing us and sometimes we need to just look for those blessings and keep moving forward. Love and miss you all!

Elder Ollis

5/15/2017 - SHARE THIS MESSAGE!

Hello everybody. 

So this week's email will be a little shorter. I don't have a ton to say, partly because I got to talk to my family yesterday. Which was super cool. But anyway. This was a weird week. Let me explain.

So first off it was transfers and Elder Miller was leaving. He transferred to Trail and Nelson British Columbia. Literally 10 hours from here in the mountains. Which is cool. So we got to say goodbye to a lot of people. It was pretty tough, Elder Miller trained me so I am thankful for that, but it was good to see all the people we had an impact on as a companionship. It was sad to say goodbye though. (even though I wasn't leaving) But I got a new companion. Fresh from the MTC, Elder Wiwchar. He is from an Island on Lake Huron, Ontario. So I have a Canadian companion. But he is pretty cool, and super excited to work. So that is good.

As for the work, this week we took some steps back.  We had to drop a couple of investigators and didn't have a very good visit with another couple, but that just means we need to put our heads down and work even harder. We are going to have to rebuild our teaching pool but I am excited to do it. A bright light was last night we picked up a new investigator. His name is J and he is a big native kid. But he is YSA age so we got to pass him off. So that has been the week. 

But let me say one thing before I finish up, I am so thankful for our Savior. I really can't express how much I love him. Without him nothing we do here on this earth would matter. Without him we couldn't live with our heavenly father. I know this to be true and am so thankful the opportunity I have to share that. Love you all and please SHARE THIS MESSAGE!

Elder Ollis

05/14/2017 - Happy Mother's Day!!

Post from the Ollis Family:

We got to visit with Elder Ollis on Mother's Day!  What a treat!  Once we got the technology worked out it was great to see and hear him.  He looks so happy and smiled freely throughout the call.  He still has his witty humor and wanted to make sure he answered all of our questions.

Some of the things we learned:

• He is assigned to work in the Confederation Park 13th Ward.  He and his companion share a car with another set of missionaries who work in another ward in the same stake.  This proposes an interesting challenge on P-day.  They spend part of the day at a member's home doing laundry and are very appreciative of the generous members.  However, they spend quite a bit of time driving back and forth between the two areas.

• Tracting is not terribly successful in his area, however, he explained that he does tracting as a principle of obedience.  And every time they do it, they find an investigator, but usually by some other means or referral.

• His zone has two districts with 8 missionaries in each district.

• Food is expensive in Calgary.  A box of cereal (a large box) costs $8 in american dollars.  So he doesn't really like to do a lot of shopping, and keeping within their budget is a challenge.

• He loves Canadian syrup!

• Driving has taken some adjustment.  They really don't have turn lanes and people park on the road.  So the car in front of you could turn right or left without much warning!  Paying close attention is highly recommended.

• Elder Ollis loves his Mission President, and enjoys every opportunity to visit with him and his wife.   He says he is "one cool dude who heli-skis, and loves adventure almost as much as he does the gospel."

Oh, how we love this great servant of the Lord!  He is doing an amazing work and does it with all his heart!  He is growing by leaps and bounds and is finding great joy in serving the people of Canada!

05/08/2017 - I Know the Lord Has A Purpose

Hello Everybody,

So this week was really weird. We got to go to the temple Tuesday. It was so cool. It was good to see all the missionaries from the north of our mission. It was super fun, and it was nice to sit next to President Miles through the session. It was such a great experience, one that probably won't happen again and one I won't forget. 

As for our investigators. A little frustrating this week. D is struggling a little and I am worried he is really only looking for a church that suits his lifestyle (which really aren't many). But he keeps visiting and we keep trying to find what he really has trouble with. There seems to be something else he is worried about but we don't know what. 

However, we are super excited T will be baptized this Saturday! Hopefully. We went over the questions with her last week and she is ready.  We had the interview set up for yesterday but satan got in the way. The members who usually pick her up for church were out of town, and we searched to try and get her home address so we could have someone else pick her up, but no such luck. Anyway she still came to church but left early because she was sick. So this week will be make or break, we have to get that signature from her parents and schedule an interview. But I trust the Lord can work miracles.  

But the weirdest part of the week, well to be honest I was shocked and a little nervous, but I am training a new missionary. I can't really believe it. We had a trainers meeting this Friday and we were going over 12 week, the program to help missionaries adjust to the work, and I couldn't help but chuckle because I still wasn't finished. So pray for me. I pick him up Thursday, and we begin the work here. I am super nervous. I don't really know the area that well, but I hope I can just guide and let him learn. Or really, we are going to be doing a lot of learning together. But I do find comfort in one thing. President Miles said he prayed about it and felt that this is what I was supposed to do. And that is comforting. I know the Lord has a purpose, and although it will be hard, there isn't anything he has given us or will give us, that we can't do. He always helps and we can always receive strength.

Elder Ollis

05/02/2017 - Mission Temple Day at the Calgary Temple