Monday, February 24, 2014

Letter #22 February 24, 2014

I don't even remember what week it is now, which is probably a blessing ha ha.  This week was great!!!! After writing on Monday we went and did a Family Home Evening with a family and talked about having unity in the family to help one another through our trials!!!  It went really well and I am so glad that I am being blessed with comfort as I take control of lessons.

We did Divisions on Tuesday and Elder Vindas, who is my Zone leader from Costa Rica, and we went out to our area and worked as hard as we could!!! We had so much success!! As a matter of fact, we are 12 days into working here in Puerto Esperanza and have yet to be rejected!!!! The people here have truly been prepared to receive us and this is truly evident!!  In total on Tuesday we taught a total of 11 lessons and found 21 new investigators. I went to bed that night exhausted but so happy for the work we had put in.  Wednesday we went to Puerto Iguazu to switch companions again and on our way back to the terminal we met a man from Sandy, Utah!!!  We bought our bus tickets and we had an hour long wait.  This man took us to a restaurant and bought us something to eat.  We were so pumped, not only for a meal but to speak English!!! haha Little things here I miss, like being able to shower without shoes.

Thursday night we went to the Bogardin`s house to talk to their son Nico.  We had a goal to baptize him this week but he really didn't want to get baptized and we didn't know why.  We took a walk just Nico, Elder Seethaler, and I, and we just talked about how he was feeling and then he really opened up to us.  We committed him to be baptized on Saturday and he told us he would!!! This kid is only 13 years old!! Saturday came around and we had a baptism!!! Nico asked me to perform the ordinance and Idk what is it but every time someone asks me to do it I get butterflies!!! We went to Puerto Iguazu for the baptism because all the rivers here were filthy from the rain.  When we got there we changed, took pictures, and then half way through our service, I led Nico into the water and baptized him.  When he left the water his countenance was completely different!  He was so happy and we all could see it!!! We had some refreshments and the whole time Nico was super happy and I could tell he finally understood the significance of Baptism!  We hurried to the terminal to catch our bus to Puerto Esperanza and ended up having to wait an hour.  When we finally got on the bus, the same drunk girl who we had met last Sunday got on the bus and greeted my comp with a kiss hahaha.  Then she tried to get me but, like Joseph of Egypt I fled hahaha.

Sunday President and Sister Lapierre came and attended our church service which meant we needed to have a lot of investigators in church.  We went around Sunday morning with little hope because the night before we had a HUGE lightning and thunder storm.  When this happens not even the members go to church. With mud covered shoes we set out to find people to take to church with us. There were alot of people that didn't even answer their doors but in total we had 26 people in church!!!  But 15 of them were investigators!!!! Majority of our church attendance this last week was people investigating the church!!! I was so happy! We had a great church service.  Elder Seethaler and I taught a Sunday school about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  In Sacrament meeting I gave a talk about Missionary work and President Lapierre gave an awesome talk as well!!  After Church we said goodbye to President and Hermana Lapierre and they told us how proud and impressed they were with our start here to this new area!!  We patted ourselves on the back and then got back to work! Yesterday we taught 10 lessons in like 4 hours and we had a ton of success.  This week, we are focusing on getting a couple married and then next Saturday we hope to have around 15 to 20 baptisms!! Fingers crossed!!!! Also today we went to Iguazu falls and it was incredible!!!

I love you all and pray for you daily!! Stay safe and God bless!!!
Elder Ollerton

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