I'm Officially a Veteran at the MTC

09/17/2013 

Well, im officially a veteran at the mtc here now, five weeks in and two more to go.  its crazy. i'm excited to get into the field.  as for this week its been pretty good but also very difficult.  me and my companion elder meono are teaching an investigator that has had a difficult life and really likes to be miserable.  its tough.  we've been trying to get her to pray so she can feel that god loves her and listens to her but she is unwilling.  one of our lessons went absolutely terrible.  we repeated everything because we didn't know how to help her.  we've really been struggling to know how to help her feel gods love for  her.  we both are having a hard time with it.  but its alright i guess. we will find something if we study with faith.  

i just want to share the fact that the scriptures are amazing.  i love them so much.  we have five or six hours to study them and i wish we had more. we do an activity as a district in which we read the book of mormon very slowly and sit and ponder.  its so amazing.  we only get through probably five verses in a half hour but as i sit and ponder the scriptures i find so much. so many deeper meanings and things like that.  i love studying the scriptures. i think i have begun to see parts of my patriarchal blessing come into my life. also i really had my testimony strengthened about the restoration and that joseph smith is a prophet.  its such an amazing story.  we watched a movie about it on sunday and it was so good.  he was such an amzing man and the movie definitely made me want to be better and be able to have the lord work through me on my mission as he did with joseph smith.  i hope to meet him in heaven very much later in life ha ha 

its a new week here, and ive got a lot of work to do. im excited for this coming week and the opportunity to teach our investigators and progress them. and mom the opportunity for me to leave everything worldly is hard, but is exactly how we should be living. 

for jett and jacob: 1 you better go on a mission 2 prepare now.  i wish i would've had good study habits and known the scripturres better. if you can do that, the mtc will be a breeze unless you are learning a language then its somewhat difficult ha ha i cannot emphasize enough how great the scriptures are.

 

WELL..... mexican independence day? oh man, it was an absolute party.  i wish i would've brought my vuvuzela.  we all crammed into the gym and watched some dancing and singing and it was an absolute riot.  all the hispanics sat together and screamed and sung there heads off.  but that was saturday night.  the actual holiday was on sunday.  so sunday night we got to watch the live broadcast of the Grito, which is when the president rings a ceremonial bell and says a few words and we all yell viva a whole lot.  afterwards president pratt stood up and said that its traditional for the mexicans to do lots of fireworks, but also to shoot there guns into the air.  so we all had to go straight to our dorms and stay there.  it was a wild night.  gunfire and fireworks.  crazy. 

 

i cant print the music. so if you could send it to me that would be awesome but i dont think ill get it before i leave unless you pay for extra fast shipping or whatever. it takes two weeks for packages.  and if you send one, send chocolate and whatever else you see fit for my needs :) 

Dad, im really proud of the fact that you are willing to go back to school and i wish you the best of luck

love you all,

Elder Ollis