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