Never Been More Thankful to Live in a Poor, Dangerous, Strange Country in My Life!

01/27/2014


Well, this week went by really fast, and I found out I have changes coming.  I’m a little saddened by that because this area has been my home for the past four months and the work is really picking up. My companion and I have been working much better together, and I have tried to work harder and be more obedient, and as I’ve done that, I’ve really seen the blessings of the Lord.

We have found some wonderful families and people that have opened up to our teaching.  A few weeks ago we had some baptisms and one of my worries was how we were going to find [other] people, because in my mind, after the baptisms we had nothing.  We had no progression investigators and few investigators at that.  I knew we were going to have to dig in and start working harder to find people, which would’ve meant a lot of contacting, which I really don’t like to do. It’s not very effective and I can’t really speak to people that well either, so... I also kind of hit a real low in the past five months of my mission and I was really frustrated with a lot of things.  But the past two weeks, I’ve really tried to be exactly obedient, more humble, and I’ve tried to work harder.  And with a bit of help from the Lord, my companion and I are doing great.  I have seen the Lord bless me as I’ve tried to be a better missionary.

I have related a few experiences of people that I believe were prepared by the Lord. I’m glad to say we’ve had a few more pop up.  I just want to share how awesome the familia Espinal are.  They are a recent convert family that we baptized in December, and because of them, we have two new investigators.  They live in an apartment complex and one of their neighbors went with them to a Christmas devotional broadcast.  And last week he said he wanted to go to church with Hermana Espinal. We stopped by and taught him and we even had a member there, and it was awesome.  I think it was one of the best lessons we’ve taught.  And amazingly, this kid is probably one of ten kids in Honduras that doesn’t have a girlfriend, doesn’t do drugs or drink, has a job, and has a religious background. So I have hope that we can get him baptized.  

Also, we have found a new investigator in Hermana Espinal’s daughter.  She has been living with them since December and she expressed when we she got here, that she didn’t like the missionaries and didn’t want us coming over everyday.  Slowly we have worked and just kept inviting her. She said to her mom the other day that she wants to be baptized. She still won’t admit anything like that in front of us, but we find everything out from her mom.  The ward has been fellowshipping her and she is going to activities with the young women on Saturday.  She went to church yesterday, and we even got her to pray too.  It’s a funny story….we told her it was her turn because we always pray and she said no. So my companion said, we’ll play a game.  He said he had a number in his head between one and 20 and whoever guessed it didn’t have to pray.  She cheated because her brother could see it and told her. So he extended it from 1 to 30 and covered his hand so no one could see.  Now my companion really likes Taylor Swift and sometimes he sings the song 22.  So as we are guessing, he starts humming that song and I immediately guess 22 and I was right. So that evened the score out because she won once and then I won. One more time and she had to pray. So we got her to pray! It was funny.

We also are teaching a lady, that when we met her, she said straight up, I don’t like Mormons.  And now she’s interested! So I can see the Lord helping us out! This work is His, I know for a fact, and I’m so glad I get to help.  Oh ya we had a baptism this Saturday too! It was a 9-year old in a part member family that we are working with.  We didn’t know we would have a baptism till Thursday.  So it was a real crazy weekend. But thanks to the increased help of the members, everything worked out good! I’ve been amazingly blessed the past few weeks.  We had interviews with President Dester and he gave me some awesome advice. We got to go to a meeting with Elder Suarez of the presidency of the seventy, and I bought some new boots!  So yah, todo macanudo as they say here in Honduras!

Again, I know this is the Lords work and I’m so glad I get to see his helping hand! I know this church is true and that we have a prophet in this day. And I know the scriptures are truly the word of God and that we can receive revelation for our lives in them.  Never been more thankful to live in a poor, dangerous, strange country in my life!
Love you all!  Elder Ollis

(Check out the new pictures on the Mission Field Pictures Tab)

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