08/24/2018 - I Know the Lord Lives and He Knows What We Need

Well hello everyone,

We had another week here, a whole seven days. Let me tell you what happened. Well what happened was we did lots of missionary work! All day, everyday. Then yesterday we had a zone conference. It was super cool, we talked about a lot of amazing stuff. Once again, it was good.

But we had a cool miracle last night that I want to share some of the details. We had some appointments that fell through and because of zone conference and interviews we didn't have time to plan much. So we said a prayer, planned it out, and went out working. We were going to our last home to visit and so we prayed mightily and asked to be guided to those who need our heavenly father. So we were knocking doors around and no one was answering but on one of the last doors this guy answers. He was on the phone and I shared about having hope in life and eternal families and he hangs up the phone and says " I don't know a lot about Christ but I want to know more." Needless to say I talked about the book of mormon and he said again, "Well are you going to give me one? Sell me one? I want to read it." We ended up going in and teaching half the first lesson, and all I can say is there are no coincidences in this world. That man was so prepared I have NEVER experienced something like that ever. He asked if he could come to church and we are going to meet him again Friday. And one of the best parts, as we were leaving he says, "hey do you guys golf?" I about hugged the man, and he said we should golf some time. There is a lot more to the story, such as how he expressed some concerns about things that we had talked about that very day at zone conference. It was a miracle! That is all I can say. I know the Lord lives and He knows what we need. And I know dilligence and obedience pay off. Even when we don't seem to be getting anywhere, there is no need for us to be less dilligent or less obedient. It only weakens us and dulls our spirit. I love this Gospel!!

Elder Ollis

08/24/2018 - Just getting in touch with my future career!

08/21/2018 - Things Are Starting to Move Again

8/13/2018 - President Keung, Elder Johnson and Elder Ollis
getting things settled for new missionaries

Hey everyone. Not too much to report this week. We had transfers, I am staying which is a huge surprise. Elder Johnson and I are going to do another one together here in Richmond and 4th wards! Anyway, transfers were crazy, first one with President Keung. It was crazy hectic, we had 3 new sets of missionaries opening up areas in our zone. And only one car between them. So we were told we needed to move a bunch of stuff and help them into their new areas. So we literally drove from 10 to 7:30. It was wild. I was super done with downtown traffic. Holy cow I could never live in a big city. 

8/13/2018- Working hard

But the rest of the week was good. We were out side a lot. It was super smokey because of wild fires but we didn't mind and we talked to as many people as we could. Sunday was a ray of golden light. There were some more members that were at church! The summer is coming to a close and people are expected to be back from their vacations. And things are starting to move again. It's what this area needs right now.  One of the members in our ward brought a non member sunday. It was sweet. The member is our bishop's son and we have been working to prepare him for his mission. He is going to Hawaii, what a sacrifice right?, Anyway it was super cool and we hope to begin teaching soon. 

We were also blessed to find 3 new investigators this week! We knocked on a ladies door and she said she would be interested and we gave her a book of mormon. She was like 17 so we decided to try again, even though those usually turn out that the parents don't want us to come over and the daughter isn't that interested. But anyway, we went by and talked to the father and taught him the restoration and we are going by again this week to teach more! that was cool! Then the best one, we found another sunday night. We had tracted into this guy named Adeniyi. He is a cool guy, from Ghana and he is quite traveled. He first came in contact with the church by attending church in the Netherlands. When we knocked on his door he said we could come by again. We did a few weeks ago and were able to teach him and his son the Restoration. But we weren't able to get a return appointment with him. So we tried again sunday, it was amazing, he opened the door and said "brothers come in." And we taught him and his son the plan of salvation. Cool guy and we are going back this week before he goes to london. That's about all. We keep working hard and the Lord blesses us!!  Love, Elder Ollis

ALMOST FORGOT
Lambo of the week

08/16/2018 - Lambo of the week

08/14/2018 - Time is Flying Too Quickly!

08/07/2018 - The Chateau Hotel at Banff

Well hello everyone! What a crazy week we had, sorry about not sending an email last week, we went to Banff, which was really cool!  We moved around a lot while we were there so we saw a lot of it. We hiked around Lake Louise area, then to a waterfall and hiked there.  We did some shopping for just a short time right in Banff, so we didn’t get to see the cool hotel or really much of the town, but I preferred the mountains anyway.  It was a lot like the Tetons, really.  I kept feeling like I was there again.  But it is a very beautiful place.  So many foreigners. It was a lot of fun!

08/07/2018 - Elder Ollis at Lake Louise in Banff

So first update, Friday was crazy hot. We hit an all time record for Calgary, it's hottest day on record. It hit 36.5 (97.7 Farenheit) which was wild. And then by sunday it was 12 (53.5 Farenheit). So from really hot to thinking about a sweater. That is how it goes up here in Canada. Also it has been really smokey too! There are a lot of wild fires and the smoke keeps pouring into the city.

Last week we were able to find a couple of investigators but we already dropped them pretty much. Really flaky and not wanting to meet with us as much as it first seemed. But still working to improve the work here. Things are moving forward. We have been out and about all week, talking to as many people as possible. Our ward is hitting all time low numbers, we had probably less than 50 again this week and at one of the wards a missionary was speaking after his return, so he had tons of family there. So not a lot of people around anymore. But we are working hard none the less. Yesterday we were able to go get a new apartment all figured out. They are splitting one of the areas in our zone and we needed to drop off a bunch of furniture for the missionaries coming up this week. We also have been handling a bunch of logistics for this transfer this week as a lot of our zone is changing and we are going to have to drive people all over the city to figure out rides and move more beds from one place to another. So it should be a fun week. It is nice though, I never mentioned this before but we drive a Chevy Colorado, it is a cool little truck and makes it really nice to move things around.

But not much to update you on. We are working hard. We have seen some cool things happen, every once in a while we will get in to teach someone but they don't seem to want to learn anymore. It's really hard but we will keep plugging along to make things happen. Transfer calls go out tonight, we already know a lot of the changes that are going to happen. There is a high probability that I will get transferred, which I will be sad for. I really love this area, it has had some hard things but there are lots of good people and I sure like serving with Elder Johnson. But we will see. I don't know for sure, just an educated guess.

That's all I got, sorry it isn't too specific on things that happened but that is how missionary life goes. Time is flying too quickly!  Love, Elder Ollis

08/01/2018 - Visit to the Calgary Tower 

07/31/2018 - The Lord is Helping Us In Each Step of Our Work

Hey everyone. 

Not much to say this week. It was a good week and we had some good things happen. It was rainy all week and blazing hot. No in between. Yesterday it was 32 (89.6 Fahrenheit), then 30 minutes later it was pooring rain and 19 (66.2 Fahrenheit), and 30 more minutes it was 32. So fun week! the weather has been super unpredictable but that is how Calgary is! For all we know it could snow tomorrow!

 But we had a good week,we worked hard. We have been really focusing on contacting our less actives in the wards and getting in to teach. We have had little success in getting in touch but we finally had a miracle saturday. After a long day of grinding, the Lord blessed us with a man who loves missionaries and had a lot of questions he didn't understand. It was cool, he shared with us why he doesn't come to church and made it easy. We are going to go back and  answer some of his questions and hopefully help him come Closer to Christ. 

We also had an awesome lesson with our new investigator. We went over to catch him sunday night and he was there but he had just flown home from San Francisco and got in that day so he said to come over monday. We did and had a great lesson. He had read the book of mormon on the plane and had lots of great questions about our beliefs. One being the Trinity, so we answered the best we could and then we shared Joseph Smith's first vision with him. It was cool, as I finished up teaching him about the experience I asked him how he felt and if that helped and he said, " wow, that answers a lot of my questions. There is a lot stacking up against the trinity huh" It was a super good lesson. We are excited to teach him some more but we also are going to have to pass him off to the YSA missionaries. 

I was pretty happy however, Iately I have been focusing on improving my ability to use the scriptures in teaching. I know the scriptures, I just struggle to find what I need when I need it, particularly in the Bible. I had been working hard to be in them a lot, and any moment we teach by opening them. So it finally paid off, the spirit helped me know what I needed to share and after long hours of working to be better at it I felt I was able to get what I needed from the scirptures in our lesson. It was super cool and I know the spirit helped. But I got a long way to where I want to be with it, so I will keep working hard. But that is all, I know the Lord is helping us in each step of our work, and regardless of what happens, I know he is helping us along the way. Love you all!

07/31/2018 - Some dope house we knocked

07/31/2018 - Lambo of the Week

07/24/2018 - We Have to Trust in Christ to Truly Have Our "Seas Calmed"

HEY everyone! 

Well a good week this week! It was also a blur so let me try and recount the blessings we had!  We started the week on another Exchange. It was super different. I was with Elder Raun, he is from Taiwan. It was awesome, he is still learning the language so it was a little tough for him, but we did some awesome work and we saw a cool miracle. We were looking for a former investigator and we knocked into a guy named Paul, he let us in and we were able to teach almost all of the restoration, and invited him to church. But he didn't come and we haven't seen him again. But we will work to catch him this week! We could find a new investigator! I know we will. 

Then we worked pretty regular all week, seeking to find more people to teach, we were in members homes, out on the streets and all over to find more people to bring closer to Christ. We saw another miracle. We had a day where we were just struggling to get some appointments, well the Lord needed us to do something else. So we did what we always do and got to work contacting and trying to talk to as many people as possible. We  were looking for another former investigator and knocked the door and a man came out and started talking to us. It was such a funny experience, he had LDS friends when he was in high school and even came to church. We were able to answer tons of his questions and started teaching the restoration. Anyway, we got side tracked by a question about adam and eve and before we know it we were being taught about how he is Vegan and we should be vegan too. It was a new one for me, haven't ever had that on the mission before. The whole time I was thinking " he is talking to the wrong guys, I am going to go home and be a farmer and Elder Johnson pretty much doesn't like anything except meat." Haha it was super fun, it made sense and the guy was super genuine about it so we listened and left him with a book of mormon. He was excited to read it. We even shared with him D&C 89 and he loved it! haha it was a fun experience, he wants to know more and said we should meet up again and go to a vegan resturant. It was great and I know the Lord needed us to find him! Unfortunately he is a YSA but thats ok! (also he drove a hybrid). He was a baller and we are excited to teach again. 

Anyway that is what the week was like. We were also able to take a lot of the young men out with us, which is always super fun, preparing them for missions. One of the Young men got his call to Hawaii and is hyped to come out with us. He was even made a ward missionary and was at our coordination with our ward mission leader this week. So we are getting him ready! 

Lastly I guess this week was a spiritual pump up for me. This area has had ups and downs, seems like almost weekly, but missions are hard. Anyway I was reading about Jesus calming the tempest, and it resonated with me. We have to trust in Christ to truly have our "seas calmed". So I made the extra effort to make this happen. It started with prayer, praying more fervently, remembering him throughout the day and praying so that I can be a tool in his hands to find the prepared. It was a much needed spiritual boost. Sometimes in the mission you think you got it, and you just lean on your experience, but as I focused more on Him I really felt the spirit extra strong. I know the Lord is there for each of us.

Also tomorrow I hit my 18 months!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Love, Elder Ollis

7/24/2018 - Some of my favorite members gave us a 5 gallon bucket of ice cream
(don't worry there was only like a gallon left, we didn't eat all of it) 

07/24/2018 - Lambo of the week

07/24/2018 - Not a lambo but still a dope car.
And you all should email me your vote, red or blue, Byu or Utah? Which looks the best?
(you all know I think the blue)

07/17/2018 - We Are Striving to be the Best Finders This Mission Has Seen

Well hello everyone.

This week was crazy. Seems like last Pday was a month ago. But we did a lot of stuff this week. Last tuesday we went on exchanges. So I got to be in Wildwood area again, which covers downtown calgary. Super cool. We got to go past the stampede grounds and holy cow that is a huge event! There are so many people there it was crazy. But the stampede is officially over now. Then we just worked hard all week. 

Saturday we had our stampede breakfast, so we got to cook pancakes and sausage for a ton of people, that was fun. Our new investigator came, she seemed to enjoy it. Then Sunday night we did a special BYD with all the youth in both our wards. We did a face to face thing with them and brought President Keung and SIster Keung and helped answer questions the youth had about missions, missionary work and just about everything in between. It was a great way to introduce our new mission President to the ward and encourage those there to share the gospel! Also as a result our bishop invited us to do a 5th sunday lesson about social media missionary work. So things are going good! It was a lot of fun. 

Then we had Zone Conference Yesterday. It was great to get some good training. We are really striving as a mission to find more people to teach. The reason is, our mission is really good about getting those we teach baptized. We have a higher percentage than most missions of people being taught actually getting baptized, but we aren't finding as many. So we are striving to be the best finders this mission has seen. So it's exciting! But that is about all I got.We are working hard and doing lots of good. I love this gospel! 

Oh and to update on our investigator, we were able teach her and give her a book of mormon, but we are going to pass her off to the Mandrin speaking missionaries because we think she will progress better with them.

Elder Ollis

07/17/2018 - A guy in our ward is a fishing guide.  He gets to fly fish 6 days a week!

07/17/2018 - Lambo of the Week

07/10/2018 - Persistence Pays Dividends

Hello Everyone.

Well I will make this brief. This week was quite a week. We had MLC Friday. It was new and very different with a new mission President. So that was pretty interesting. Then we went on Exchanges with the Spanish speaking missionaries. So I was with Elder Fish in the Spanish missionaries area. Kinda a new one for me. Just followed along not sure what in the world was going on. But it was a good day. Then we had a great Sunday. 

Monday we had a couple of cool miracles, we were driving and I saw this van in a driveway that said restoration on it. It was for another Church, so me and Elder Johnson went and talked to the guy in his house. Anyway it was cool because he seemed interested and a really good guy and was willing to listen to what we said. So we are going to try him again some time. Then that same day we were trying to contact a former investigator. They weren't home so we knocked a few doors around. No one was interested but we asked for referrals and a lady sent us across the street to try a house. Anyway, they weren't interested either but we tried next to them and found a lady. So how it happened was this. When I knock doors I kinda am to that point in my mission where unless that person has the guts to slam the door in my face or tell me to go away I just keep teaching because I am tired of rude people. Even when I can tell they aren't interested I just take the time to teach so they can hopefully feel the spirit. So we knock this door and I could tell the lady wasn't interested, but once again I just thought, well until I hear “Not interested” and she closes that door I am just going to teach the restoration. So I did. I began teaching very simply the restoration and got to our Savior’s Earthly ministry. Well at that point she said “ok I will listen” and went and grabbed us some chairs and we sat down with her on her porch and began teaching. It was amazing. We were able to teach and eventually she accepted an invitation for us to return and teach her more. It will take some time, she struggles to accept anything other than the bible and wouldn't take a Book of Mormon, but we will get there. So we picked her up as a new investigator! So that was awesome!

But that is about all that is going on up here. It's summer and our wards are really small because everyone is gone. 4th ward probably didn't have more than 80 people there. So appointments are hard to come by these days. The other thing is Stampede is going on too! So lots of drinking and everyone dresses like a cowboy. And most people if they have time off are down at the stampede. We don't get to go to that as missionaries. But that is about all that’s been going on. Have a good week.