Letter #20 February 10, 2014

Hello Everyone!!

This week was super hard.  We didn't have a lot of lessons the reason being that I was super sick for 3 days and couldn't leave the pinch.  We ate with Hermana Kata on Wednesday and after we had a pretty good meal she brought out what I thought was peaches.  Long story short... NOT PEACHES!!  I woke up the next morning so sick I couldn't leave the apartment.  We called the nurse and she told me to go take an antibiotic, but the thing is I have no idea what it is called so it turned into a "tough it out" kind of thing. haha.  We studied a ton this week and the scriptures have just come alive for me these past 4 months!!!  I have decided to read the New Testament this past month. Reading about the life of our Savior is something very special!  I sit and read, and wonder if I would have had the faith to be healed.  It shows me things that I need to work on in myself and then helps me set goals for the week.  Once I got healthy again, (3 days later) we worked hard.  We knew the transfer was coming to an end and we wanted to finish strong.  Saturday night we went and visited Ramona´s family.  When we got there we could tell there was tension between the family.  What had happened is Ramona had text us saying that she wasn't home when she actually was.  Her daughter found out that she had lied to us and it turned into a huge fight!  Ramona tried to ask Christina for forgiveness but Christina was still angry!  Ramona began to cry while telling us this story.  Christina got mad during this time and just left.  We felt that we needed to share something special.  Elder Izurieta and I sang Love at Home and talked about the Lamanite  mothers that gave their sons to war.  We talked about how God knows our needs especially the needs of mothers.  She still had a hard time with it so we called Christina and told her we wanted to have a prayer before we left and she came back.  We went into their house, knelt down, and prayed for this family.  The spirit was strong and the next day when we went to their house, they were drinking Mate together (this is very significant here)!!  We shared more about the Book of Mormon, what it is and why we need it.  Then we challenged all of them to read it.  They accepted except for Christina.  Normally in these situations I let Elder Izurieta talk some sense into them, but this time I felt something inside me.  I looked at this family and suddenly it hit me, I knew these people before this life and now it was my job to help them.  I realized that I have been set apart to preach the gospel for 2 years. I bore my testimony about the Book of Mormon and told them how I felt about it.  Then I looked at Maxi, it was his first time listening to us.  We asked him if he would read and he told us he didn't have a book.  We gave him one and we heard him say to his cousin that he wanted to read.  While I was talking I looked over and noticed he had began to read and was in 1 Nephi 3.  He had taken the first step of Faith to find out if the church was true!! We had a prayer and left while the Spirit was still strong!! I know I was blessed with the Gift of Tongues to be able to help this family understand how important the Book of Mormon is.  

Today the transfer ended and we were going to be told whether or not we are getting transferred.  The hermanas called us this morning and asked us if we had heard anything so we told them that they are both getting transferred.  They called our bluff but we kept our joke going.  They came and talked to us in person and some how I kept a straight face.  They told us they wanted a copy of the tablera.  The tablera is a sheet with every missionary on it, who their companion is, and where they are going.  We said ok and then we had no idea how we were going to keep our joke going!!    We ran to the church and hurried and made a fake tablera!! It looked completely legit!!!!  The hermanas saw it and almost started to cry it was so good!!! Then we got a call from the zone leaders like an hour later telling us the real changes. The hermanas were not happy with us .haha.  I am now getting transferred to an area called Puerto Esperanza.  I will be opening this new area with my new companion!! Packing is the worst but I am excited for this new experience.  It is about 7 hours north of Posadas, and 30 minutes away from Iguazu falls. If you don't know what that is you HAVE TO look it up!!! It will take your breath away!!.

I love you all and I appreciate you prayers and thoughts!! Stay Safe and I will see you all in a quick 20 months!!!

Elder Ollerton