Letter #62 (February 3, 2010)

It snowed quite a bit this weekend. We had 3 to 5 inches in Raleigh. We stayed in on Saturday. Church was cancelled on Sunday. We had a great Zone Conference last Friday for the Spanish Zones. There are 2 spanish zones, Spanish East and Spanish West. We have a great missionary named Elder Chupin serving in Cary. Elder Chupin joined the Church in Mexico about 2 years ago. He's been on his mission for almost a year. He's 22 or 23 years old. His parents aren't members. They weren't interested in joining the Church, but they were supportive of him going on a mission. About 3 months into his mission, he told our mission president that he couldn't get a hold of his parents because they didn't have email access and there was something wrong with their mailing address. President Cotterell granted Elder Chupin the opportunity to talk to his parents once a month for 10 mins to see how they were doing.

As Elder Chupin was getting setting apart as a missionary many months ago, his Stake President promised him that his parents were going to get baptized. President Cotterell also promised Elder Chupin the same thing. On Christmas, Elder Chupin received the news that his parents were taking the discussions. About a week ago, he received the news that his parents were baptized. I know that Elder Chupin's faith and prayers were the reason that happened. He shared that story in zone conference as President Cotterell held him and stood beside him. God is a God of miracles.

I also did a rap in Spanish and performed it during lunch time of zone conference. It should be in youtube in a couple of weeks.

We're teaching a media referral named Leonel. He's golden. He told us that his family in Honduras are already members of our Church. We have a date with him for the 27th of February.

I've committed myself to be even more diligent in my missionary work. I've been slacking on my journal writing at night time. I've been writing at night before I go to bed and I feel the Spirit. I then pray for a question or topic that I want to study for the following morning. I had one of the most effective personal study of my mission yesterday. I feel good! I want to continue to improve be more like our Savior. I expect that my mission will never get easy. But, that's how we grow! This is truly the Lord's work.

Love, Elder Olaya