But Then I Thought, "That was the Spirit"

07/14/2014 

Hola, wonderful people.  I hope you all had a wonderful week.  I did, ja ja, so don’t worry.  This week was a pretty good week because we had a baptism!  Wohooo!  We had two actually.  The two ladies we’ve been waiting for finally got baptized. That was really awesome!  We should have two more in two weeks if everything goes well.  

Well, today I honestly don’t know what I’m going to write.  My comp and I are working like mad.  We have a goal to have five baptisms in the month of August, and three of them have to be men.  The branch where we are at needs more priesthood, so we need to bring some men into the branch.  We are going to have to contact like crazy and trust in the Lord, because this is His work and He will lead us to the people that are prepared to listen. So that’s what we are going to shoot for.

  

This week was also a little frustrating.  Something I’m finding is that talking with less-actives really frustrates me.  They just forget the promises they made with God, and many times they just don’t even care.  Patience is something I’m learning.  Oh ya, and we talked with a ton of people full of apostasy, so that was really frustrating too.   You just can’t convince people, it has to be through the spirit.

But anyway, I just wanted to share a cool experience that I had.  We went to part of our area that’s really far.  We have to drive in a moto for like, twenty minutes.  We went and every appointment fell through, so for three hours we had nothing to do.  Contacting is not one of my favorite things to do and I didn’t want to do that for three hours.  But I didn’t know what else to do.  So I thought, let’s pray.  So we sat down on a bench and said a prayer. And I just said, “Look, we don’t have anything to do, we don’t know what to do.  Help us out.  Send us someone to talk to, or send us to someone who is prepared to listen. If that’s not what you want, we will keep contacting for three hours.”  

It was definitely not that casual, and not exactly what was said, but something like that.  So we sat there for a second and I had the thought to go talk to an old man that was sitting by a store.  Then my comp said lets go over there, and we started to leave.  But then I thought, “that was the spirit” and I said let’s go contact this guy.  So we get talking and he asks us about the Book of Mormon and how he can get one.  He had listened to the Elders before, so we gave him a Book of Mormon and set an appointment to meet with him.  He hasn’t been there the past two times we passed by, but we taught his family and they were super nice and receptive.  We have another appointment this week and I have hope they will progress.  

That was a real testimony builder for me, that God answers prayers and is directing this work.  We have to listen for the spirit and learn to recognize it, and when we do, we have to follow.  I believe it was the spirit that told me to talk to that old man. Hearing the spirit and recognizing it has been a challenge for me in the mission, but is something we have to learn little by little.  In Preach My Gospel it says it’s like another language.  So just a cool little experience we had.  I know this is God’s work and I’m so glad I have the chance to be a part of it, and see the power of His hands and the gospel in the lives of the people here.  I know that God answers prayers, and the spirit is sent by Him.  I hope we can always remain worthy, and continue bettering our ability to listen and heed the spirit.  I know this church is true. 

Love, Elder Ollis