June 5, 2012

Slumber Party -- Missionary style

Hola Familia,
Well Well Well I always knew my family was made of steel eh? hahaha Congratulations on conquering that which is known as the trek. What a feat and it sounds like you came out of it with more than just aches and pains. How awesome it is to struggle and grow not only physically but also spiritually and mentally. I am just so glad to hear it was so good!   Also sounds like we have some soon to be Broadway dancers huh? I can’t wait to get to see them when I get home. Trust me I believe you when you say they are the best! Well In all honesty this may not be another great letter because I am with about 12 other elders in a library and we are all going to play some sports and have tons of fun this pday but I don’t think they write as much as I do or read as many letters as I do hahaha! Let me tell you it is so great to be back into the midst of many an elder. I was kinda losing it there in Wauchula because we are away from everyone but now I have got 12 new guys who are tons of fun and happy to be around me. I really couldn’t ask for more. This morning we cooked about 4 dozen eggs 6 pds of sausage and 2 packs of bacon soo now we are content and juiced up for a great day hahahaahaha. Being an elder is awesome. To answer a few quick questions yes this is suppose to be a strong season for hurricanes because the heat is different and they are predicting at least one if not two as far as I can tell. ON the upside our shack of a house is located in the red zone or the most likely to be destroyed if a hurricane came. hahaha so we may have a couple of adventures coming our way. Also the Chicken turned out great! We marinated it for 24 hours and then we stuffed it with onions and ham and such and then we tossed it in tin foil and cooked it in a fire. Turned out great except for it stank of fecie. It tasted great it was just an overwhelming aroma. We think elder shields stabbed the fecal bag. hahaha yea but don’t worry we had cleaned it well and we are fine after like 4 days of eating it. As for the area things are going great. I think there is a ton of potential for this area we just are trying to figure it out and pinpoint where we need to strike. For ex we hold a sports night every week and this week there were more investigators than members there at the church playing ball. Not to mention we had a guy come to
English class and then another guy just called us but the one who actually came said he was interested in our message. So we will see how all this goes. Also my Spanish is coming back like lightning! Muscle memory or something haha because it is really getting pretty good not to be prideful or anything. Just self measurement and there is always room for improvement. Also this week we got 5 member presents which hasn’t been done in this area in a long time and we ended the week with 16 lessons. Before it was like 12 or 13 so we are on our way up and things are going great. However we did just have a man in the branch die this week. His name was Alfonzo (fonsi) and everyone loved him a lot. I met him once and I already loved him. He was very funny and just had a light about him that made you really happy hence why he got the nickname fonsi, just a goof who although his health was terrible was full of life and never complained not once. So when we heard he died we were kinda down and worried about how his less active family would take it. (They just had their grandfather die like 2 months ago also) Well All we can do is be there to support them and try to cheer them up and hope the best for them. There is just a lot going on and we are really trying our hardest to do it all. You have got to tell walker that his call is awesome! He will come back speaking BEAUTIFUL Spanish and correctly.
As for you guys might I say that these letters for some reason really kinda touched me spiritually. I just kept getting those chills as I read each and every one. It was just like a tingle of excitement and the best hope for you guys. Yes we are all getting older but I can’t wait to become like every Mexican family out here and have like 40 kids each! Hahahaha I know the lord is taking care of you guys and I am just very glad I don’t really have to worry about it. That is something that hurts many missionaries out here as they try to serve but keep getting freaky letters from back home. Some of which they have shown me that truly made me grow up and see life for what it really is.  They are all the greatest of people but they each come from such hard backgrounds. Just trust me when I say we have it easy. Anyways I love you guys and I am so happy to always hear from you. It makes the wonderful day of pday that much better and helps the week go by with a lot less worry. Sorry I also don’t have much time but I will write back next week hopefully a little bit longer of a letter.
LOVE,  ELDER OLIVER

May 29, 2012

Hola Familia Oliverio!

Well it has been quite the week and many good things are a happenen. I am super happy to hear that you guys are now finished with school for a while and that you are now able to relax and enjoy the free time! I challenge all of you to have as many crazy adventures as you can think up and then write me back about them. I personally have already started my adventures for the summer but that will come a bit later in this letter. haha Congratulations! to Cassie Mcgraduate Oliver! You have finally successfully passed through that known as High School and now the real big adventure begins. Don’t forget that death is the ultimate adventure but that this is a mighty and great one. I am so happy that Chelsey our wonderful and very wise sister was there to give her love and support as you finished the great adventure. Trust me when I say that family is where it is at when it comes to starting anew and fresh. So you are lucky to be part of a beautiful and caring family. Just keep me posted on how everything goes. I am sorry to you guys that I did not write yesterday. Of course Memorial Day means no libraries are open and therefore we the Elders of Apollo Beach have no means of communication

Now as for me over here in Florida. Apollo Beach has turned out to be great. I have an awesome companion Elder Shields who is definitely a worker and super fun to be around. He is calm and serious but knows how to love people and definitely knows how to be fun. It’s like we are already best friends. haha However this area is really slowing down lately so it’s up to us to pick it back up and keep going. It’s funny because I actually had a dream where people where telling me this and telling me that right now we are the only ones capable of doing it. It actually really impacted me a lot and kinda made my fire burn just a bit brighter than it already was. So we are pumped and ready to go and do. Also yes Elder Shields is super into working out so we go to the church every morning to do p90x and it has been going great. Not only that but he loves eggs so all we have eaten is egg after egg hahaha protein.... So things are going well and the members already seem to like us and now we are starting to get a little deeper into it. Like setting up splitz and family nights and ward activities and a couple other things so it should be great. But here is a little something interesting. We live in pretty much a shack. Like 20 by 15. so not much and we live in a very woodsy area so there are many a bug-- and big ones they are. We have already killed about 3 spiders as big as my hand one of which I paid Elder Shields five dollars to eat and we have a guardian gecko named Pedro who keeps out the roaches. We have billions of ants in our back yard, we found a grasshopper the side of half a dill pickle (the ones Grampy gave us as kids) and there are chickens everywhere. Now here’s where the cool stuff comes in. Because we are near the end of the month we do not have miles nor money for food so being p-day yesterday we thought about what we could do to satisfy miles and food problems. So we ended up having to stay at the house but to make the day interesting we decided to get us some food by hunting the neighborhood chickens. hahaha (they belong to no one so they are free game. We made two spears and proceeded to hunt. Long story short we got one and now he is cleaned out well and in a marinade waiting to be cooked over a fire either by us or an investigator who said she wanted to cook it for us. hahaha Yep we can make huge fires in our backyard because Florida is wet and it’s not against the laws so we sometimes just whip up a fire for like a half hour before we go to bed. Yep so we have been having quite the bit of fun. Oh yea we also got to do service and while we were there the lady has a mini horse and she said we could go play with it so after using my horse whispering skill I mounted and rode into the wind! hahaha It was actually pretty cool. We also have had a couple of very spiritual experiences where I happened to say something that apparently meant a lot to Elder Shields about things that he has been thinking of and we almost set a baptismal date. The spirit was so strong that the lady was actually crying probably because she knew she needs to do it but something is holding her back that must be pretty hard so we will continue working and testifying. I just really already like this area and I am super excited to get even more into it. I love this work and I can’t believe I have already hit a year! HOLY SMOKE! haha its going by too quick! I have nightmares that I am back home and I don’t feel like I completed my mission and you guys keep asking me what did I learn like 5000 times and then it resounds in my head all day! hahaha So apparently as much as I would love to be home my heart is here in the work for right now and I am loving every minute of it. I feel like I have already learned a ton but there must be more for me to learn otherwise this dream would cease to repeat itself haha. Well I love you all very much and I really do miss you. It makes a guy happy to know that everything is well back home. You guys are the best family!

LOVE, ELDER OLIVER

May 21, 2012

Hola Querido Familia,
Let it be known that I have just finished one of the most successful and life changing weeks of my life and that if I am to explain any of it I cant talk so much about you guys even though I really want to! We are just getting back from Port Charlotte where we spent our last pday as a zone and district together and now we are sharing the computers so I really am going to try and fit everything in real quick like. First off I am soooo excited for all the things going on in your lives! These truly are the best of times and will help to make the everlasting memories we dream about haha. I am just super proud of all of you and my heart feels relief to know that everything is going so well and that you guys are pulling through everything. I love you and miss you very very much and I hope the best for you in everything you do this following final week!
As for me, Yes I am getting transferred. I am now going to Apollo Beach which is like the second best area in the mission and it is all Spanish speaking! Not to mention I am going to be with like one of the coolest elders in the mission! Elder Shields. haha Pretty exciting and let me tell you one of the saddest thing I have ever come to hear. I kinda knew I was going and everyone kinda knew it too so this week was full of a ton of final moments that have seriously changed my life! It was one of those times where the Lord tells you how grateful He is for you and how proud He is of the person you are becoming. I seriously was just so worried that I hadn' t done everything right and that maybe I should have been different when all of a sudden the Lord took the time to tell me otherwise. I dont think I have ever felt so much love and compassion as I have in these last couple days! To start we did some splitz this week with our boys Leo and Esteban who (for as strong in the church as they are) are having questions about things and it was one of those moments where I knew I was in the right place at the right time because they had the same questions I remember having when I was their age. It was just such a testimony to me as I answered their questions and was able to comfort them. Not to mention on our splitz they have been a little down because they haven't been seeing success already and for some reason they kinda were like why do we even do this. So of course the Lord provided two lessons one with each of them in the which the Spirit was felt very strongly and they saw the change in people taking place and it ignited the fire once more. I was just so happy to have had the opportunity to show them what missionary work is really all about. Not to mention when two boys who are 18 and 16 start to cry and tell you they are gonna miss you it really makes you feel like you did good. Then we set some time aside to go and see as many people as possible and it was just so weird because sometimes you just never realize how much of an effect you have on people until you tell them you are leaving. I had Cruz in secrecy buy me an "I love Jesus Ring" (not to strong of a member yet) even when he has absolutely no money and nothing but he went out and found me something that I can and will keep forever. Then Abuela (mama Juarez) knitted me a red and blue beanie and gave me a box of really good chocolates and I had quite a few people make me promise I would come back and that they would provide me and my parents with a place to live. One guy even told me he would take us up to Disney World and a couple other places. So lots of love was felt and I can not believe how hard it will be to leave this area. I now have come to know that I do know how to love and that the Lord is changing me. Finally for the finale I got to give a talk on the Book of Mormon as my last testimony here in this area. Well people afterwards were calling me cry baby but telling me it was great and trust me they are just as big of cry babies as I am! hahaha I just love this area and I am going to miss it so much. I took a ton of pictures so I could show you guys everyone but I might lack a little. haha I LOVE YOU and miss you all but I have to go! I hope you guys are all having as great of a time as I am and I keep you all in my prayers every day.

LOVE ELDER OLIVER