October 24, 2011

I love these pictures!! My kids have always wanted to eat a huge plate of spaghetti (after watching Gameplan) and now that Chantz is on his mission he was finally able to do it! (no mom around to tell him it's too much!!) I also think this was his first haircut they did on their own--I think it looks great!
Carlee had sent this to Chantz and he being the great older brother--sewed it on his backpack so it reminds him of her! She was pretty excited to see this and now the other girls want to send him one too!

October 24, 2011

Well HEELLOO!
Time for the weekly furious typing to commence and for the hand cramps to
be ever present hahaha. They are definitely worth it though. Well Transfers
happened and I guess the Lord has seen fit to put me in a little bit of a trial
haha. Lets just say I am going to the middle of nowhere where they speak
extremely small amounts of spanish, the nearest other missionaries are a half
hour away, we are full car due to the distances of everyone... Yes everyone I
have been exiled (I only say exiled because this is seriously the place that
everyone calls exile) to WAUCHULA to serve with guess who? My MTC companion.
Elder Clark. I can honestly say I am kinda nervous which is weird for me because
usually I don't get to nervous about anything hence the crazyness. haha NAW I am actually kinda excited. Adventures await and I most likely will grow and learn a lot. We have become better friends since the MTC so we'll see. All of this was made just a little worse because as I am starting to say my goodbyes at church and get pictures a couple people got a little teary eyed and then the
bishop had me give my testimony and I looked out over the ward and it really kind of hit me how much of a part of it I was. Everyone was looking at me. Like all the kids and every adult and all of seriously everyone. haha It was cool and I really just felt soo much love and care for all of them. Each and every person had something so special and had given me some sort of an experience as a beginning missionary. Not gonna lie it will be super hard to leave this place. We took some pictures and stuff and I still have to say some of my goodbyes but I leave tomorrow. Oh yea we had a couple dinners last night too with some of our more favorite families (not that I don't like all of them just that some are a little more closer to the heart) and after dinner one of the kids in the families gave me a teddy bear and a note that said I would be missed Very much. haha It reminded me so much of my little sisters and how every birthday they give me one of their precious toys hahaha awww I am seriously going to miss this place. The lord always waits for us to get comfortable and then he kinda chucks us into the purifying fire. haha For example. I am in an awesome area with pretty much only spanish, with a best friend for a companion, tons of new investigators, a ward that started to love me, other missionary friends to build me up, weights to work out with, Pdays filled with tons of stuff to do, and not to mention two baptismal dates for this week. but all is swell. I am headed on to a bigger adventure one that might actually prove hard haha But i look forward to it and I know I can overcome all things with my Lord and Savior. He understands us when no one else can. I love my Heavenly Father and I love Jesus Christ and I will go and do whatever is required. or at least I will give it the best chantz attempt possible haha. As for other and more upbeat but in the past stuff, we did have some cool things happen this week. We had a Culture night where everyone in the ward set up a table and brought a certain plate and decorations from their country. We had quite a good turn out and the food was awesome. Lots of cool dances and singing and all sorts of cultural things that really just interested me. It helps us to understand why people are different from others or why certain things are cool
with certain people while with others it is not. haha What I really learned is that Latinos have quite a bit of patriotism to their country. It was almost a battle for who could have the best food and who ate the most from which table and things like that. We as missionaries even set up a table for America and we had half a table for spiritual since right now that is our culture. SO one half had burgers, brownies, and roast beef, while the other had BOMs and Pamphlets and Pass a Longs. We provided people a way to never hunger or thirst again haha it was our slogan that we tried to use to get others to take the books and things haha. Always doing missionary work. We also did a youth activity where the youth came tracting with us and they had to give out a book of mormon to someone with us. it turned out pretty interesting and I think our kid got way
freaked out. We ran into like 4 houses that reeked of pot and one lady said she used to be mormon but was judged and left this she did while her half naked husband came and pretty much shooed us away. Hows that for strange. haha Poor kid.... hahahaahahaha Good times good times. Well we also had quite a few visits and we are starting to get return appts. so we are excited for that but I am leaving so I am as excited as you think I am. haha Now as for you all. Wow I loved the letters this week. They were fantastic and I love seeing how all of them fit you so much. haha Good to hear that everything is still going good. I am however surprised to hear Scott's getting married. He is quite the legend out here let me tell ya. Everyone knew him and liked him. So I'm not surprised he is a go getter done but that just seemed rather swift like. Well I guarantee they will be able to make it though. They both are just awesome. Send me the pictures and tell Scott all the other missionaries around me while writing this letter
(Larson, Paget, Lopez, Volgelsburg, Marchetti, and titmus) think its awesome.Well I love you guys and I really do miss you but I am on quite the adventure out here and if we compare the mission to a video game I am headed for the boss battle. Should be epic and legendary. hahaha I will keep you all posted on how things play out.
LOVE ELDER OLIVER

This is a picture of Chantz's first baptism--it is not the one he is talking about in his letter but we haven't gotten any recent pictures.

Hola Querido Familia!
Once again another week has gone by with the swiftness of a gazelle and much has happened. To start, like always I want to thank you for all the nice letters. THey are super importante out here as they remind me of why I came out and that I always have a family who loves and supports me. Thanks. As for the money issue with me I might need some more money on my card because this week i had to pay for new bike tires and I had to get my bike fixed. I had tried everything to fix it on my own but my brakes were just messed up and because the brakes are so important I thought maybe i should just get this fixed. haha And the money came off my card because I have to make it through the month on my jp morgan with food. And now that i weigh a little more I eat quite a bit more so food is rather important. hahaha But I really am happy everything is going so swell and that life is still exciting back there in az haha I love reading all the stories and hearing how you all are doing.
As for me and how things are going here, Things are pretty great. My comp and I are like best friends and we enjoy going out everyday and we push each other to become better so its quite the relationship. Not to mention we now have hit the point where wrestling matches after planning are almost inevitable. haha Its a pretty fair fight because he is a farm boy and has quite a bit of weight and strength over me but I have the moves. haha so good times good times. We work and we work and we work and then we plan and then we are out the door and we work. haha its crazy because these past six weeks have gone by too fast. We both are hoping for a couple more transfers together, which I think might happen. I dont know too much about it all I know is that in my presidents interview he told us he wanted me and elder larson to start the twelve week program which is the program for all the new missionaries coming in so either we train of me and elder larson have twelve more weeks together! Score! haha As for the Other missionaries here things are awesome. I love all of them and I really think it will make me so sad to leave this language zone when I have to. But asides from that the work is going well. We are finding and teaching many new people and we are starting to get into the second lessons with some of them but we are yet to get some confirmed and stable people. Like I said when my last comp left I had three people to work with. Lupita who was baptized and jose who we are really working on and Glielber who is an eternigator or someone who will never change and progress but listens to the lessons. So Not much let me tell ya. haha But now we have about 7 progressing investigators with about 15 or 16 investigators and about 30 or more potentials who told us we could come back. haha We are actually starting to get to the point where we are getting about 3 or 4 lessons a day instead of 1 or 2 and I am aiming to have about 5 to 6 so we are really trying to buckle down and get some serious work done. haha Its awesome because this area that I am in used to be despised I guess haha because it was soo slow or something at least thats what all the other missionaries say. But now things are awesome and we are finding and the ward is picking up and things are really starting to move along. We just Baptized Lupita Guillen and now we have a baptismal date with rachel Perez (15 year old girl who has been progressing like soo slowly.) and with this lady named marina who is very difficult to get to actually do stuff because she has an autistic child named jacklyn and she has no car and she works at the mall. So things are tricky with her but she said she wants to be baptized and that she recieved an answer to her prayers. sooo We are working very hard with her. We also are working with This guy named Jose Dirienzo. he is 18 and is kinda a skater punk partier but we were talking to him this week and we discovered that he really is kinda depressed because he doesnt like doing those things but its what all his friends do and he doesnt like to drink so his friends make fun of him and then after all that he has to take care of them at the end of the night. So it really kinda stinks for him. We talked with him for like two hours but by the end he was all happy and super positive and was like when are you guys coming back? haha so cool things come to those who listen. Asides from that we have some other investigators that were progressing but for the past little while we have had some trouble finding time to get with them. But With the other investigators who are not yet considered progressing (which is only because we have only had a first lesson with them) but the cool thing is is that they are families not just ones or twos but like 3 or 4 and we are super excited to get working with them! The lord guides us when we are trying our best. haha As for a story I have quite a tale for you all. So there we were riding around trying to get some return appts set with some of our potentials and then as we ride up to veronicas house we are stopped by her little boy jose who i have pictures of. He is a little nugget just like clay was and I serious think he is the most awesome kid ever. haha Well he is the son of veronica and he decides he wants to show us all his shoes and a bunch of his toys. So were being shown all these things and all of a sudden out of nowhere like 15 or 16 kids come up to us and start talking and showing off and racing and having a good time with us BIG missionaries hahaha. pretty much everykid in the neighborhood was there by the end of it. haha We stayed and watched them show off and we played games with them and while we are playing with them veronica comes out and of course she uses the lame excuse of "Oh Sorry I am making tortillas right now" even though we didnt even say anything to her hahaha. well it goes well and we had to leave but now everytime we go back all the kids wave and say hi and come and talk to us and its really kinda funny because all the adults are like giving us kinda the who are these guys look but all the kids are so funny and cute and we feel so Loved. I know good things are going to come from this! Well I dont have much time left so I love you and I hope you enjoy this letter expect a package in the mail. LOVE YOU ALL
LOVE ELDER OLIVER

Up and Running!

I am so excited I have finally got this blog going! Chantz has almost been out for 20 weeks...I know, hard to believe! Chantz loves his mission and has had so many great experiences--we want to share with family and friends. Hopefully I can keep this up to date--

Just a little rainy--I hope his clothes hold up!
Elder Oliver and Elder Berry