Maybe We Just Planted the Seed

03/03/2014

Well… I finally have a companion. I got my companion this morning in the office. He’s from Guatemala and he doesn’t say much.  So we will see how the week goes!  It’s back to working in my actual area, and I’m super excited about it.  We have a lot of work to do!  We had a baptism this weekend and we have another one this week, and possibly another the week after that! So things are just moving along. The only thing is me and my companion have no idea about anything in the area.  We are getting another pair of missionaries in the area the next transfer too.

We finally met the Ward Mission Leader and the Bishop. He even showed up at the baptism we had, which was a surprise.  He took us to meet the Ward Mission Leader and we set up coordination meetings, so I think things are slowly improving!  Which is always a bonus.  It’s just super tough because we have close to twenty returned missionaries... but they are all tool heads (in the most loving way I can say). (Mother's comment: I was told a tool head is another word for slacker). They would rather sit on Facebook, during the three hour block of church, than listen. So they aren’t exactly the most reliable members to help us out.  But little by little.  

I just want to share an experience we had with an investigator which was super frustrating for me.  We had received a reference to visit a lady so we went and visited her house. She wasn’t there but her husband answered the door.  We started talking and then he invited us in.  We started to talk a bit about the gospel, and he had questions, so it kind of turned into Lesson 1, but in a really different order than it gets taught normally.  But he listened the whole time and the spirit was there. We challenged him to pray about the message we gave. It was an awesome lesson and really unexpected.  So we left and I was hoping that he would pray and that the spirit had spoken to him. A few days later I called him and was super excited to go teach him.  Well, he had mentioned in the lesson before that he had a church, but he would pray and see which church he should go to. I called him and he said that he said he had his church and wasn’t going to commit to anything, but we could come by.  So we went to visit him and bore our testimonies and explained why this is the true church, because we have the priesthood and no other church does.  We explained why that is important and again bore our testimonies and invited him to learn more about the church and then left.  I was super bummed.  I remember saying I had faith that he would be baptized.  But I guess right now just wasn’t the time.  Maybe we just planted the seed. It just goes to show that you don’t know the timing of the Lord, but that He knows what we need and when we need it.  Maybe in the future that man will be baptized. I don’t know, but I know that even if we don’t baptize every person, it doesn’t mean we weren’t successful.  Our job is to spread the gospel.  And if people accept the gospel and are baptized, then that’s always a bonus.  So I’m still going to have faith that one day that man will be baptized. So yah, just a little experience.  And as always, learning how to listen to the spirit more and more! Just loving the mission, hating the heat, and trying to speak Spanish. That’s all!  I know this church is true and I’m so glad I get to share it for two years and live like this!  It’s awesome!  Love you all, and shout-outs to all my Spanish speakers out there!  Whoo! Siguen adelante!  That’s probably wrong, but don’t judge.... still learning.

Elder Ollis

From an email to Tom: Our baptism was for Samir. He is 13 years old and his dad is a recent convert and he's awesome. We are going to drive a Camaro and get in a police chase when he comes to the states.  But he's driving and I'm paying the tickets.  Ha ha.  His mom is a bit harder but we are going to shoot for a baptismal date for the 22 of this month. The missionary who baptized him used to be in the area and came back for the baptism.  His companion is in the glasses.  The other two missionaries are the Zone Leaders I have been living with.

From an email to Sydney:  We went to the park to see the monkeys.  They just hang around and they like to eat chips and churros.  They were shy while I was there because there were so many people around.

And the biggest monkey of all, eyeing his cake to celebrate 6 months on the mission!