Letter #38 August 3, 2014

Hey Everybody,

Well this week has to have been one of the hardest of my mission.  We worked hard, and my body is absolutely wrecked.  I have been sick for the past 4 days.  It's not the normal stomach problems I have had here either.  For the past 4 days, I have had migraines, chills, a fever, and aches throughout my entire body among other things.  It has been super hard to even think without something hurting.  There has been a couple times I have almost had my companion catch me just because my body has no energy to even stand.  But on a good note, I have become more humble, thanks to my inability to move.  All is well in Zion!! This letter is going to be shorter than the others because we worked 4 days this week because I was sick.  A cool experience we had this week happened when I least expected it.  I was really struggling to increase my love for the people here.  My companion called me out on it and it made me think, because it made a tough situation even harder for me!  He told me that the best thing he has done to help increase his love, is do an act of service.  I told him that would be a great idea if people ever asked us to do service or told us yes when we offered it.  Just as we were walking to our next appointment, we saw a family of 3 carrying a washing machine and it fell apart right as we caught up with them.  We asked if we could help and before they could give us an answer, we just picked up the washing machine and started walking.  We walked a couple of blocks and ended up at their house.  Turns out this family is a family of less active members with 3 kids waiting to be baptized!!  I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry at this tender mercy of the Lord.  I was so grateful.  Something I have learned from this quick 10 months on the mission is that the Lord presents us with opportunities to improve ourselves.  He doesn't do it for us.  The Lord gave me an opportunity to strengthen my love for the people and serve them and in turn my love grew.  I'm grateful that we had that experience and now we have another family to work with! 
I hope everything is going well and that everyone is living it up :) Stay safe!!
Love,  Elder Ollerton!!