December 9, 2013 DON'T EVER TRUST A MISSIONARY TO MAIL YOUR MAIL....

Here's the email Elder Olguin sent me this week.  He's staying in the same area this transfer!  If anyone would like to email him directly he emails on Mondays and his address is colguin@myldsmail.net

Elder Cuauhtemoc Olguin Jr

Canada Winnipeg Mission

845 Shaftesbury Blvd

Winnipeg, MB R3P 0M5

  

Dear Mom,

I wrote letters to you all 2 weeks ago... then after district meeting a missionary said that he could drop them off to be mailed... then yesterday... he handed them to me... I was a bit flabbergasted... but yes they will be arriving this week... 2 weeks late.. >_<.... oh well : P

I can't believe Izzy is 8 months old, I miss you all so much, I can't believe there's only 17 days until Christmas!!!

Well we received transfer Calls on Friday........

I WILL BE STAYING  In the waverley ward yet another transfer!! I will be serving with Elder Porter, he is from Mesa Arizona and I met him last night at the Christmas Devotional, He has been out for 3 months and he seems like a great guy so I'm excited to serve with him : )

Allan is doing amazing, we still meet with him every once in a while and he's really good friends with the new Elder's quorum president, so I expect to see him very integrated into the ward now : )

Yes I have heard from Llewellyn!!! She is doing amazing!!!  AND HER STEP-SISTER(SAME AGE) IS GOING TO BE BAPTIZED ON THE 11TH OF JANUARY!!!!! We have been keeping in touch and she is doing so much more amazing than I could ever have imagined

I do my best to stay in touch with past companions, Elder Kenney's the only one who replies consistently : )  Hahaha...  I've been on a tough road with companions...  I find it a lot easier to love people that I'm not around 24-7.. so I find that my companions become great friends after I get another companion and start missing them... Haha... I honestly love my companion... I think a misconception is that because I'm a misisonary it's easy to love everyone especially your companion... well... I do my best : P  I've just come to find that I'm kind of more like a one man wolf pack... ; P  I'm just kidding, Yeah Elder Lott and I have had great times : )  Well.. Elder Lott is from a small town in Utah called mendin... he plans on being a youtube star when he goes home... he really loves youtube... he came on his misison 10 days after he graduated... he loves singing.... all the time... all the time... I've been doing my best to help him actually teach in lessons and I've been helping him take the lead in the work cause he really needed that.  He has come a long way though, I'm proud of him : )

Yes our ward is pretty Small, And the STP (Same Ten People) principle applies everywhere it seems, our ward has such amazing people but it's those 10 people that do 90% of the work.. It's been amazing seeing the ward come together cause when burdens are shared the work truly moves forward : ))

 The mother of the 2 brothers we've been teaching has 5 boys.. and the youngest is 14 years old, he won't let her raise him so he is in foster care, the others, 19, 21, 23, have all been baptized but they are off away from the church, and it's the 2 eldest who haven't been baptized that have been humbled that are learning and progressing, and what an answer to their mother's prayers it has been. 

The ones that are learning right now are great.  They are the ones that have learned how to be self reliant, and yet they have seen the changes as they rely on God and search the Scriptures : )  In fact, we have a misison rule were we are not allowed out if it is below -40 so on Saturday after our lesson with them they invited us to stay for dinner and we also watched "the testaments" (a misionary movie) and they loved it so we watched mountain of the Lord with them as well.  It was such an amazing day, they were just soaking in all of it, it was amazing!! We had a wonderful day and they were practically leading the conversation with their own questions and insights.  it was wonderful : ) 

 I have forgotten so much about Calgary since I got here... 

Job's friends all found it pretty easy to judge, we all know right from wrong and the greatest gift that God gave us was the Gift of choice... we all have our own choices to make, you can't change anything.. all you can do is endure.. and pray... it's a mixture of Job and Alma... (Prophets in the Bible and Book of Mormon)

You know what's right and wrong... there's always a line between acceptance and tolerance...

anyways... 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIMI!!!!

That's great to hear about her birthday... haha... "Mustache Bash"... what a kimi party.... ; P

Wish I coulda been there : P

... so many people think they know best.. even among missionaries... people often think that we're trying to convert them to nothing more than a church... where as we are really inviting them to be converted to the Gospel of Christ.   It's something that I try to apply to my life day to day.. because if I didn't... I wouldn't be able to teach people how it can and will change their lives.
  

I love you : ) 

Can't wait for Christmas!!!!

Love,

Elder Olguin

December 2, 2013 Transfer Calls are Coming this Friday!

Thanks to those who have taken the time to write a quick note for Elder Olguin's birthday coming up next month.  

And he also mentioned he did NOT spend all his time last week emailing Sarah, he was emailing from a place joined to the University of Winnipeg and they closed an hour earlier than usual and he didn't even get a chance to email Sarah at all! (Sorry Sarah!)

Dear Family,

I'm going to start addressing you over email a bit more as I'm finding myself with less and less time and more and more exhausted! 

I really have been loving getting your letters and your pictures!

I heard that The girls sang in the Stake carol festival, that's fun : )  I love Christmas!!!  I don't think I've ever really been a festive person... but being out here has really made me appreciate all the wonderful opportunities to bring others together, especially family.   Not that we should need an excuse to be brought together but it's always nice to have things to look forward to.

I had my 3rd thanksgiving Dinner last week as we got invited over to an American Member's home, it was wonderful and I gained a good 5 pounds so it was successful.  I know Kamila probably thinks I'm really fat now... but I'm not... we still run and workout... and I eat pretty healthily so that's been good : ) 

This past week has been amazing... just over a week ago a member approached me at Church and she asked me to start teaching her 2 sons that have hit some tough times and are very receptive at this point of their lives.  1 of them has 4 sons and the other is just going through his machinist course, both of them are great guys and the one with 4 sons has a real desire to become better for his family.  He expresses a lot of remorse for mistakes he's made and people he's hurt... He is separated from his family at the moment.   When we first met with him we were amazed to hear about how he felt when he read the Book of Mormon with his mother.   He talked about how he was seeing answers to questions fly off the pages it seemed.  His mother had taught him a little bit about the Book of Mormon but the feelings that he received while reading them were undeniable he said.   We read Alma 32 with him and his brother and we talked about what faith is and ways that we can develop faith.  It was incredible, both of them would sincerely answer questions we asked and they would ask questions themselves and we were able to help them answer their own questions through reading the scriptures.  It was pretty incredible, one of the funny things that happened during the lesson was we had 1 of the brothers read Galatians 5:22-23 (this brother had a little bit of a harder time understanding bible/Book of mormon language)  and I could tell that he was alarmed after reading "longsuffering"  so after I asked him if all the feelings listed sounded good and he shook his head and said "not really"  I then explained to him that longsuffering didn't mean endless torture, but it means being patient through trials, we all had a good laugh about that!!

It was really amazing to see both of them at church : )  They both enjoyed it and they are excited to meet with us again this week : )

It was funny being on the bus to church yesterday... we caught the 170 in downtown and we immediately saw 3 members on the bus.. then 2 stops later 3 more got on the bus, by the time we got to church it seemed like half the bus was mormon!

Well I hope that you guys aren't expecting much more than a skype home for Christmas... and my Love(which is priceless ; P )  But yeah... I would love to send you all something but I can't afford much and it is very difficult to find the time to put something together for you... I'm sorry... I definitely will make it up to you all in 2 Christmases!  I really love you all.   Thanks Mom and Dad for everything.  I love you both and I feel your prayers from here <3

I love the twerps too <3 (Mini, kamila, THing 1 and thing 2... Kenji, and I can't remember the last one's name... )    <333

Love,

Elder Olguin : P

November 25, 2013

Thank you those of you who have replied! I will be sending a birthday package next week so next week is the last day to respond if you would like to have a quick note included in the package.  Just a sentence or two is good, and just hit reply to this email and I will print your message (I promise not to read it!) and include it in the package.

I think he ran out of time this week! He must have spent all his time emailing Sarah! haha!

 Dear Mom,

It's interesting to think that we are given the trials we need and not the ones that seem or don't seem hard to others.  I always try to put myself in other people's shoes and it's easy to compare trials but they're not meant to be compared, they're to be personal. No one but Christ can really know what we're going through.  There's so many people out here that accuse me of being a "white collar" they tell that I don't know a thing about life because I'm 18 years old and I'm wearing a shirt and tie.  I've been told: "if you had gone through the things I have, you wouldn't believe in God either" it's interesting how God gives us different trials yet the healing balm is no different for you than it is for me. It is all enveloping.

There are so many good people in this world.  I'm always told;"I'm not interested, I have my own religion".  But I was reading in the bible this past week, I was reading about Paul.  I love reading about him... someone who flipped immediately... but it's interesting how Paul didn't change all that much...  his efforts were redirected for sure but even as a Persecutor of the Christians he did all that he did in the Belief that it was all for Jehovah, when he was visited we see that all he ever strove to do was serve God.  He was blinded spiritually and then, almost as if symbolically, physically as well.  And both blindnesses were removed and he continued to be the Zealous servant he always strove to be.  he was still tormented by the things he did in his past but he was one of the most powerful missionaries in the world.   Sister Barfuss told me a story of this lady who used to be in her ward then moved, years ago when the missionaries came to her door she yelled at them and told them how they were of the devil and such before slamming the door.. a couple weeks later the missionaries felt like they needed to go back and she had felt so bad for how she treated them that she let them in even though she still thought they were of the devil, and then she was baptized and is still active.  I thought a lot about that story as I read about Paul,  there's so many people "who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it."

AHHH THEY'RE CLOSING EARLY!!! I HAVE TO GO!!!

Love,

Elder Olguin

November 18, 2013

I'm sending a birthday package to Elder Olguin at the beginning of December.  His birthday is in January but I'm not sure where he will be and it might take up to 6 weeks to arrive.  Please take a minute to write a note by replying to this email and I will include your message in the birthday package.  Thanks!

 Dear Mom

It was wonderful but strange to see sister barfuss Yesterday : ))

Wonderful because she was such a sstrong influence in my life and I love her, but strange because it feels like no time has passed at all : P  she TOld me about how amazing Carter is and how Ben is planning on serving a mission, it was all just amazing to hear.  I love you and I love everyone back home so much.  It was interesting having a piece of Home right there yesterday, but we had an appointment right afterwards that we rushed to so I plunged right back into the work : )

These past 6 and a half months have flown...

There's only 7  elders coming in the next transfer so president thomas said that this transfer will most likely be a very quiet transfer, but then again it will all be done under the direction of the Lord so we may end up having a very intricate transfer : P

I also picked up a bunch of thermals from the mission office as well as another incredibly warm jacket.  Thank you : )

Allan is doing amazing, the ward has been doing such a wonderful job of fellowshipping him and it's amazing to see. 

I pray for you all each night and I miss you all.

The missing the 2 buses story was one of the most incredible experiences I've had in my life.  And it truly helped Jessica. YOu're absolutely right, he knows us so much better than we can ever know ourselves... "Consider the lilies of the field".  Yes we will be skyping home on Christmas, I'm sure that I can skype you while you are at Grandma's, I'll let you know the details as we are told more : )

Yes!!!! Quade Emailed me! I'm so excited and proud of him!  He's going to love it here : )

Everyone is starting life... it is very interesting to see : )

I love hearing from Jacob every week, still writing the craziest things.  It's interesting looking back... it feels like all my friends when I was with them... I only saw an outline of who they are.. and now it feels like they are all really starting to fill in that outline... if that makes any sense... Pretty much... everyone is growing... even Jacob...  ; ))

Love you,

Elder Olguin : )

November 4, 2013

Here's the email from the week of November 4, I'm really behind on sending these out!

I will be sending Cuauhti a birthday package at the beginning of December to make sure that it arrives by the beginning of January in time for his birthday.  If you would like to write a quick note for his birthday, just hit reply and I will print it out and add it to the package or if you have something more personal, please get it to me by December 1.  Thanks for all your support! Mika

Dear Mom,

I received the books last week! Thank you so much!   I can't believe I hit 6 months on friday.... I remember meetin a guy at the MTC who had been there for 6 weeks and I thought "I'm never gonna get there...."   But I blew past that and every week time seems to just go faster! 

Well Exciting news for this week : P   the assistants called us and told us to be at the church in 5 minutes cause they're taking our car.... we were in downtown and had lessons scheduled and it was just nuts! anyways, we are now bussing elders and I'm lovin it!!

 We're starting to need to layer especially with the bussing : P

That is so great that there was a family of 3 baptized into the ward : )  Elder Lott and I just recieved an email today that a family that we were teaching then moved to Brandon just set baptismal dates for December 7th!!  I can't believe that Allan will be baptized tomorrow!  He is so amazing and I am so grateful for the opportunity that I had to teach him : )

Hahaha that's great that you made costumes,  I dressed up as a missionary : P And that's good that kenji could be a shark : )

I love the 25th chapter(of 2 Nephi)!   I believe that verse 23 and 26 are a scripture mastery.  I love them.

Well another exciting thing that happened this past week was that I was assigned to interpret for sacrament meetin next sunday... because both of our interpreters will be out of town,... : P

hahaha I"m so excited/scared/nervous???  hahaha... I'll let you know how it goes : P

Well Allan's Baptism is tomorrow!  I'm so excited, I talked with him on the phone today, and he told me that he feels so ready.   it ahs been amazing teaching him... a man who is working on his PHD who had so many questions, who did not recognize the importance of the commiment he's making tomorrow a few months ago.. he's ready and he has come such a long way, I remember when he told us that he wanted to be baptized.  He has come such a long way. 

Some sad news is that he chinese couple we were teaching called us one day an told us that the were moving to ontario... oh well I guess Al can go find them and teach them now : P

but seriously the misisonaries who end up teaching them in ontario will be amazed by these wonderful people.

THis past week has been crazy, rying to figure out the buses has been fun : P we took the wrong bus the other day and ended up in the north end by accident and it took 2 hours to get home .. that was pretty scar-fun : P

I can't believe how old Izumi is getting.  I can't believe that she's almost7 months old...

I hope to get your letters soon : )

Daylight savings was great, geting a whole extra hour of sleep!

I love you.  I am still amazed by everything you've done for me mom.

Tell the girls I love them and I hope you wished Mini a Happy birthday for me.

Take care : )

Love,

Elder olguin

November 3, 2013

This week was a short letter.  I think he has come to the point where he is more missionary than teenage boy! He said the coldest they have had so far is -10 and tell Sister Barfuss he hopes to see her this month when she visits!

Elder Olguin can be emailed at colguin@gmail.com

Dear Mom,

You may be wondering why I'm emailing so late today... well it's a fun story : P this morning at 6:40am we recieved a call from a senior couple asking if we could go to steinbach(about an hour south of Winnipeg) and help them move a bunch of stuff for the missionaries that will be moving in on thursday so we headed out at noon and we just barely got back to the city less than an hour ago, it was fun : )

You're probably wondering about transfer calls.... I'M STAYING IN WAVERLEY WITH ELDER LOTT!!! I'm very excited, Elder Lott and I have had such an amazing transfer and we will both be able to attend Allan's Baptism next week on the 5th! Another reason that I'm ecited to stay here is because I've really progressed in sign language, and I will be able to continue progressing here. Last night we had our

monthly Canada Winnipeg Mission Fireside, and It was titled; "Come Unto Christ and Be Saved". Brother Petty came but no interpreters!! I know I said I interpreted at the last fireside... but I'll be honest.. I didn't do the greatest Job... we spent most of the night talking about hockey.... ; P hahaha.. just kidding : P but last night.. was different... I felt so much more confident... and I was able to interpret so much more and I felt the Lord using me so much more powerfully this time. I love interpreting the Hymns, because it's poetry. So it means I have to really think and I have to portray the meaning as best I can (in ASL it's all about getting the meaning across, no need for unessacary words, just express the meaning and feeling and emotion as best as you can. I love it so very much.) I have come a long way.. I think back and I remember seeing a very skilled and experienced interpreter and I thought.. "I will never be able to do that...." But as Henry FOrd said "every Job can be made easy by breaking it up into lots of smaller jobs."(DEFINITELY PARAPRHASED) and it's true... Alam 37:6 : ) ("Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.")

Well this week I suppose the eventfulness was probably how we were able to teach a deaf man! It was a man that Elder Crake and I met playing soccer a few months ago, and we were able to get his number.

 But at the time I was terrible at ASL.. so I was terrible.. and yes.. I put him on the backburner... but this past week, ELder Lott and I decided to text him so we started texting him and he wanted to meet!

 WE had a wonderful meeting and I'm looking forward to continuing to teach him! He's 20 years old and from Africa, it was so great just being able to communicate with him, he smiled more than I've ever seen

 anyone in my life smile... it was fantastic : ) This week looks wonderful! the pettys invited us over for dinner tomorrow so we're excited for that! And we were invited over to a member's house on thursday for dinner : P I guess they don't wnat us knocking on doors that night or something ; P

  

Thank you so much for everything mom,  I'm so grateful for the things you've taught me throughout my life.  Even little things that I didn't even realize I noticed...

well I'm hitting 6 months this week... it sure doesn't feel like 6 months...  I seriously am amazed by how my paradigm has shifted.. I never would've thought that I would feel like I'm running out of time out here... but I already feel it.. I realize how little time this truly is that I have to give everything I have and Everything I am to others and most importantly GOd.  KNow that I love you all, and I'm Doing my best.

 Love,

ELder Olguin

October 20, 2013

Here is the email from this past week!  Mail can be sent to Elder Olguin at the following address;

Elder Cuauhtemoc Olguin Jr

Canada WInnipeg Mission

845 Shaftesbusry Blvd

Winnipeg, MB R3P 0M5

Canada

  

Dear Mom,

You're absolutely right,  I cannot believe that It's been a year since that age change was announced... A year ago I believed that I would be in Africa or South America right now,  but instead I'm here. Exactly where the Lord has need of me.   One of my favorite scriptures that I have truly fallen in love with lately is Isaiah 55:8-9  I have always used it to teach others about the commandments of God.   So much of what is accepted in the world is accepted by individuals, it has been amazing as I explain to others that God's laws may not seem to make sense to us immediately but that through living the commandment we teach them about they can know for themselves whether what we teach is true or not (John 7:16-17, and Alma 32:21-43)   

It's been half a year, I'm really starting to realize just how true it is that time flies out here.  My paradigm has shifted from that of "I still have 2 years ahead of me" to "I only have 18months left to accomplish all that I've been called to do!"   anyways it's crazy...

Allan is doing amazing, it's incredible to see the change in him,   Anyways, I don't do too great of a job with keeping in touch with my past companions, I should really start emailing them, I here from elder Kenney everyonce in a while, which is pretty great : )  Of course I'll keep in touch with Llewellyn, she's doing amazing, fully active and she even sang in stake conference yesterday with the stake yw choir!   Yes Sarah and I write to each other.   It's been really great, she's definitely such a strength to me.  Anyways, anything else you're curious about? : P  Yeah, there's quite a few Calgarians and Albertans that serve here, there's 3 in my ward including me : P

Transfers are on halloween 

It was great that we have been able to have people inside the building, it has really been picking up as we have really been talking to everyone and inviting people in for church tours : )

This week has been pretty incredible, we have been teaching a lot more lately and we have really been seeing a lot of blessings.  This past week I took a lot of time to just think and ponder on a lot of the amazing things that have happened to me and have lead me to where I am now.   This past week we met a pastor and he really bible bashed us, it was an interesting experience.  About 15 minutes into his bashing I stopped him and told him that we aren't here to cause contention.  We asked him if there was anything we could do to help him or his congregeation.  He was a bit taken aback then started getting all defensive and told me that I misjudged him and that he just wanted to talk about Jesus Christ.   He asked me questions like; "why don't you have assurance that you will be saved? why are you working for your salvation?"  I replied I'm not working for my salvation, I'm working for the salvation of others.   I'm not here to "earn" my salvation.  I'm here to invite others to come unto Christ.   I find assurance in God's love for not me but all of his children.   This man had a PHD in the bible, he knew 22 languages including greek and hebrew, me?  "I'm but a child, I cannot speak"(jeremiah1:5)  yet I have not come to teach as the "the scribes"  I've come to teach with authority (mark 1:22) 

Every word I said was used against me, but he cannot take away my knowledge that Jesus Christ Lives and that he stands at the Right hand of God (acts 7:55-56)

I have spent lots of time studying the 1st article of faith (The Articles of Faith are a list of 13 statements of exactly what we believe in as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The first one is "We believe in God the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost") this week and it's been amazing as I've pondered who God is, who Jesus Christ is, and who the Holy Ghost is. 

the Book of Mormon, teaches exactly who they are.  The Book of Mormon has changed millions of Lives, it is true, it is the word of God, and there none that has testified agaisnt that has not failed.  Because, it is true.

Talk to you next week, I'll let you know what my transfer call is, we'll get them on friday!

Love,

Elder olguin