I'm So Grateful We Have an Eternal Vision

(Elder OIlis was transferred last Wednesday to a new area.  He spent three days with his new companion who was then sent home.  He is currently living with the Zone Leaders awaiting another new companion.  He is a little frustrated that almost a whole week went by without learning about his new area or doing much missionary work. Please keep him in your prayers!)

02/10/2014

Well, I honestly have nothing to share this week.  It’s been a really crazy week.  I’m getting a new companion this week and I’m in a new area, so it’s really crazy right now.  I’m seriously sitting here trying to think of something to write…..  so I’ll just share my testimony.  I just want to share that I know this church is true.  The gospel is really the only way that we can make it through this life and return to live in the presence of God. I know the scriptures are like a guidebook for every problem we have in life.  And I know that we can express every problem we have to our Heavenly Father who loves us and is waiting to hear us.  I know we have our loving brother Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and is waiting to forgive us for the things we do wrong.  I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet called of God for this day.  

I’m so excited that I will get to listen to this General Conference and actually understand it this time- ha ha.  I’m so glad that we have this church.  This world truly is filthy and dark, yet with the Atonement and the hope that it brings, the world is definitely much brighter.  I’m so grateful that we have an eternal vision in sight and that this life is just a test, a really long test at that. I’m also thankful for the opportunity I have to share these things.  I’m so thankful for the many blessings Heavenly Father has given me. They are innumerable. He loves us so much and I know He's listening to us and that’s why He gives us so many guides in our lives. He wants that we can come back to Him.  Love ya all and miss you all!

Elder Ollis

He Paid the Price for All

02/03/2014

Well, I just want to write a little bit this week.  I had an experience this week that really made me think about what comes after this life. I won’t share [details] unfortunately, but know this, it was pretty crazy. Anyway, I thought a lot about what comes after this life, and how different it is for people.  Death has never been something that has caused me too much stress.  I’ve never been worried about my own life, or the lives of my family. Now before everyone thinks I’m insensitive, let me explain.  It’s because I know that this life is not all. I wouldn’t be completely devastated if someone close to me left this life, because I know I’ll see them again.  I know that whatever happens to my family we can live together again after this life, if we are righteous. That’s the goal!  

I also received a package and had the chance to read over some of the talks my family sent me. One of which was on the topic of grace.  Now I’ve never understood grace until now.  Something that really struck me as interesting was that he said, Christ didn’t pay for a part of our sins and we had to be obedient and try and be good to pay the rest.  He paid for all of it.  We can do nothing to pay him back for that, or even try and pay our part.  He only asks us to follow Him in return. That is grace.  I had never understood that word.  But now I do.  How merciful is our brother, Jesus Christ, that He paid the price for all and only asks that we follow Him.  And yet we can’t even do that sometimes.                 

Now to tie this all in with death, I also received a talk about how the gospel of Jesus Christ challenges us to do and become.  In the Book of Mormon it teaches us “this life is the time to prepare to meet God”.  The key word is prepare.  When I prepared for my mission it took a lot of time.  And in the scriptures it says this life.  Our whole life is the time we have to prepare; the only time.  We should always be working to become like Jesus Christ and prepare to stand before God in the last day.  Maybe this is why death seems so small to me. It is hard to remember all that during the day, but when you think of the eternal picture and why we are here, it seems so insignificant.  But it is impossible to always make a complete upward progress in life.  There are always downs, unfortunately much of it is self-inflicted by our sins.  That is when the grace of Jesus Christ becomes something necessary.   He has paid all so we can have that progress again, even after we make mistakes.  How grateful I am for that. All He has asked is that we try to follow [Him] and make progress each day.  Anyway, that’s my thought.  Love you all and miss ya!  And as always, I love the work!

Elder Ollis

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)

I Love the Mission!

01/20/2014

This week was a pretty good week.  I had my ingrown toenail removed Tuesday and I couldn’t walk outside because it was pouring and I couldn’t get my toe wet or muddy.  So that was a little frustrating, but it is what it is.  It’s healing now and it doesn’t hurt to walk anymore so that’s always a bonus.  This week the weather has been awesome.  It’s rained a couple days and has been rather cold for Honduras.  I even had to break out the raincoat once in the morning because I was so cold.  So that was pretty awesome.  But the most amazing thing this week was we had another person that was prepared to hear us!

My companion and I were walking back to our house after lunch with a member and we stopped a mototaxi.  I had ridden with the driver before and didn’t have a very high opinion of him I won’t lie.  The first time I met him he had yelled at a homeless man that walks around the area and harassed him.  But this time he was very calm.  He asked us a few questions about the church and my companion shared that the church helps people.  He mentioned that he needed an operation on his leg. We said we would love to come and visit and he said sure.   I remember thinking that maybe he would listen to us so we would pay for his operation. He said he would show us his house as we drove to our house.  Well, he showed us and then he drove us to his gate and we went inside and taught a lesson. It was definitely unexpected, and our first lesson was the Word of Wisdom.  So it was definitely a surprising experience. But they were very kind and open and we have a return visit with them, and I have hope for this family.  They are even married! That takes care of pretty much the biggest problem with teaching families.  I know they were prepared by the Lord.  

I’m so grateful that the Lord is allowing me to have these experiences and that I can see His hand in this work.  Things are getting better here in the branch also.  We had members in our lessons a lot this week and we even had a branch council meeting yesterday in church.  The branch has set some goals for the missionary work in the area and they have taken more of the responsibility on themselves.  That is something I’ve been waiting for.  It makes me a little sad though, because I may be leaving the area in February.  I know as I strive to be obedient and worthy and ready to have the spirit as a guide in the day, the Lord will bless us with more people to teach. 

Just on another note, today just happens to be the five-month mark for me.  Wow! I honestly haven’t felt these five months.  Thinking back to before the mission, time seemed to go so slow.  The school year was forever, and my sister said that she’s halfway done with school already.  My brother is almost finished with wrestling season and I always felt that wrestling season was so long. Wow, what a rush these past five months have been.  I have learned so much.  I thought about the rest of the time I have in the mission and how fast it’s moving.  Before I know it, I’ll be back with my family. I won’t put on a black tag every morning, and I will have to worry about worldly things again.  And that’s sad.  I have loved the past five months more than anything.  I’m so grateful for the experiences I’ve had, the things I’ve learned and the testimony I’ve gained.  I know as I’ve seen how fast the mission goes, I want to work harder, to be more obedient, to be the best missionary I can be everyday, because its going by incredibly fast and I don’t want to waste it.  It’s not fair, ha ha. I know I’m going to put in more effort to do those things. But I love this gospel and I know the things I’ve learned have changed my life. Before the mission, the gospel was a lot of confusion in my head, and now it couldn’t be more simple.  The scriptures are amazing.  I love them.  They truly are the word of God.  I know every time I read them I can learn and grow.  I’ll often read and think to myself, that verse was not there the last time I read this book.  There’s no way I could miss something this profound.  But it’s true.  The scriptures constantly have new meaning in my life and I’m so grateful for the power they possess.  I’m so grateful for the prophet and the apostles as well.  I know they are called of God.  They are such examples to me and I’m so glad that I get the chance to be a special witness of Jesus Christ just like them.  I know as we heed their words, our lives will be so much better. During my language study I’ve started studying the Liahona with the past conference addresses because I didn’t understand anything in October, ha ha.  I’m so very grateful for this gospel I can’t even begin to explain how much.  That’s all for me this week!

Elder Ollis

In a separate letter to mom:  I’m just going to answer mom’s questions….  We went to a clinic with the mission nurse and they numbed my toe, took forceps and pulled the whole infected part up and out of my skin and cut it out.  They only removed half of my toenail. I promise, it was a nice clinic. Thomas has pictures.  It was a little painful the day of and after, but I rested the day after and it’s healing now. I’m wearing shoes and no pain meds or anything. The problem may be my shoes.  I’m looking to buy some boots with round toes soon.  Also, the sole of one of my shoes has a hole.  I’m really happy about that!

Just an update on the sister we found last week, her husband came back.  She didn’t come to church this week. She said she felt like she was at the first day of school last week at church.  But she wants to go to a Relief Society activity and her husband has expressed interest in reading the Book of Mormon.  So I think we will be able to work with them a lot!