Letter #7 (Dec. 8, 2008)

What's going on Family!

It was a good week. We're still trying to find a solid investigator. No one showed up to church again. 3 people stood us up this time. Its all good. I'm loving this work. We stopped by this man's house named Alan. He's a skeptic! He's a Baptist! We had challenged him to read the Book of Mormon and to pray to know if its true. We saw him on Friday and he was ready to bash. "I read the Book of Mormon and prayed and God answered me that it was not true." He said that he spoke to his Pastor about the Book of Mormon. Sure... his pastor is going to give him great advice. Alan said that he doesn't understand why there's no ruins for the city of the Jaredites. My companion said to him, "where's the ruins of Noah's arc? that was a pretty big arc." Alan through everything at us. His attacks were like a slow tennis ball hit at our direction and we had Roger Federer's tennis rackets with us. He was contradicting himself in his arguments. At the end, I bore my testimony about the night I prayed to know the truth of the Book of Mormon and I received the truth by the power of the Holy Ghost. We were never on the offensive but were defending our Faith the whole time. I had prayed in the beginning while we were with Alan when he went to pick up a phone call. He started off bashing so I knew that we needed to have the Spirit with us.

The next day this Jehovah's witness we talked to a couple of weeks ago, let us in his house. He spoke Spanish. He was bashing us as well. I had to defend my faith in my weak language. I still bore my testimony and all he did was mock my experience. It's all good. I can't convince everybody nor anybody. But I can have the Spirit with me and bear my solemn and burning testimony of the truth.

I bore my testimony a lot this week. We had zone conference on Wednesday. It was amazing. That was the day my life changed. That was the day when both my feet were in North Carolina, not one in NY and the other in NC. I'm really focused now. . I was asked to give the opening prayer in zone conference. We had talks given and then we had lunch. We had workshops for missionaries. We returned to the meeting and the Conducter of the meeting mentioned that after President Deaver gives his talk (one of the counselors of the mission president), Elder Olaya will give a 5 minute talk on his purpose as a missionary. What???!!!! I wasn't aware of that. I turned to my companion and asked him what was the conductor talking about. He told me that all the missionaries should prepare a 5 minute talk becaused they might be called to give it in zone conference. Out of all the missionaries they chose me. I said a prayer in my heart and then i scrambled through the scriptures to find something to talk about. 5 minutes later I got up and gave a talk. It was one of the best talks I've ever given. The Spirit was strong and I was directed in what to say. Many people came up to me afterwards and thanked me for what I said.

In fast and testimony meeting, I bore my testimony in my ward (Knightdale 1st). I told them about the power of fasting and how i fasted 4 times over the last 2years to know if i should go on a mission. The 4th time i got the impression to act as if i'm going. When I told my father, even though he's in a nursing home and i'm his only visitor at times, he was still supportive.

God is a God of miracles. Many member of the ward thanked me. I felt good. I hope to continue to witness the hand of the Lord in all things.
I love you all,
Elder Olaya