September 10, 2012

Hola Familia!
Well this week was again fantastic and awesome! I loved the letters as they all inspired me and helped me feel like working even harder. I just love hearing from you guys and how everything is going. Thank you for always finding time to fill me in. It means a lot. A little business-- Yes I got the package and it was great! We have been demolishing the candy like crazy. I also love the pictures! They are great! You guys are all so gorgeous! Yes marvelous. just marvelous. hahaha  Yes it has been raining quite a bit but it makes it nice outside until it gets muggy, then it’s rough. But my lounges are pretty used to it and yes everyone sweats especially in the houses that don’t have ac. You just get over it. haha Plus my glasses fog up every time I get out of the car so that is fun too. But yes my contacts are doing well. I fear for my eyes. I think they are getting worse and the contacts can only be worn for short periods of time otherwise my eyes begin to burn up--even the brand new pairs. So I save up and wear the contacts when they are really needed. haha Also I do plan still on checking on byu I want to apply soon so If you guys could get any information you think I will need that would be great. GPA and such. Also pday is used to play and have fun. Sight seeing is what we do on bikes haha as we ride to and from everywhere. But if there is a certain spot we do go out and try to see it. We usually play basketball and volleyball and relax or last week we went bowling and had tons of fun. I took pics so it should be good.

As for me and my comp here in Tampa we are doing great, having fun and just working still. A lot of this week was less actives and such but we did end up finding Samuel finally and were able to talk to him and find out how he is doing. He has been working his tail off and the Lord has blessed him. Not only that but he is constantly sharing his testimony with others. He told us how sad he has been because he has not been coming to church due to lack of car and communication but he has been reading and studying and sharing with everyone what he knows and now he finally has enough to buy a car! How cool is that! Wow the Lord will always provide right? haha We have a Seventy coming to the mission this week so that is exciting but I wanted to tell you guys that here in this ward there is a member who has like many gifts of the spirit. Like every time we go over the weirdest most coolest things happen. She always talks about what we study without knowing and she teaches us many things. But the cool thing was this week she called us and told us that there was a family near by us who was ready to hear the gospel and accept it. I asked her where we could find it but she told me to follow the Spirit. We are going to find them this week. I know it and I am super excited to do it. I just love working. The first day we just got door after door slammed (which has never really happened to me so far) but I thought of Alma and Amulek and just got more excited. We are going to find a family! What does it matter if 100000 slam the door! haha I am just ready to go! SO I hope to report next week that we found them and that I can tell you how cool it was. I love you guys so much! You are the inspiration to my work. I can testify because I know how important it is to me. We are the light in the darkness. I love thinking about that. I hope everything is great this week and that you all have tons of fun! You are the best family!

LOVE, ELDER OLIVER

September 4, 2012

Hola Familia!
I am super happy to get to write you guys this week. The letters were wonderful and I enjoyed every one of them. I am happy to tell you that things here are great! We are having TONS of fun and just working our tails off haha. This is already by far my favorite part in my mission. I don’t know why it’s just great. I will explain a little after I catch up on all you guys told me.
First I must apologize-- sometimes when I am writing letters I don’t know how to write what I want to say very well so it comes out very strongly and then because I don’t reread what I write I miss it. The pictures are great, I actually went back and read the last letter after reading these couple and I realized I sounded like a whining child! hahahaha please forgive me is all I can really say. I really love pictures and such but please don’t feel bad if you cannot get them to me. I know you guys are super busy! and now I sound bipolar.... hahahaha but really I just have wanted to see a couple things and I was kinda starting to wonder. But anyways I love you guys and I just like showing you off to everyone. People here in Tampa especially are always asking to see you guys. So I whip out my little booklet of every picture you have ever sent me my whole mission and the good times get rollin hahaha. Dad I loved the letter and I do have some ideas about missionary work. First off I don’t have it memorized but somewhere in D&C around 80-100 section it talks about bearing testimony to all the world that our sins may be forgiven. Also because that is what God desires of us. Then I usually go over to the story of Alma the younger and read about how they had prayed and fasted oft. Then I would recommend finding the mtc talk given by Holland about Peter and never going back in the which he uses the last chapter of John and the last couple of verses when the Lord says Peter do you love me and he responds yes you know that I love thee and this happens three times but the line after is "Then feed my sheep" I have actually used this in a couple talks I have given and it went great. The spirit is super strong as you explain that the way to show our love for the Savior is through our missionary efforts. I love talking about it. Also set up splits with the missionaries read chapter ten in preach my gospel the part about using members. It talks about using them so that First and foremost the members may have an opportunity to share their testimony and get a taste for the missionary work, and second to be a fellowshipper. Get the members a schedule have everyone going out with them as much as possible, get with the Spanish missionaries and send the men that know Spanish with them so that they will remember what it is like to serve. I love the word remember there is so much power behind it. It’s all over in the scriptures but you’ll find like over 20 uses of the word in Helaman 5 explaining the power of remembering. I also pray and hope that your business is going well and dandy. The Lord will always provide as long as our desires are to serve Him as stated in second Nephi. For some reason right now the numbers don’t come to my head but I guess if you’re going to use these things you will have to search. Sorry.

As for me things are great! We are workin and workin! and I love workin. We just had a baptism on Saturday and a guy back in Apollo Beach who I started teaching with Shields also got baptized on Saturday. So it was fun to go and see them all and also to have our own. This week was a lot of preparing and getting ready so not too many exciting things but Mario is awesome! He studies for his interview! hahaha he has already read half of the Book of Mormon and now he is giving us food. I got to try starfruit this week which is delicious by the way if you have not tried it. Oh yea Elder Jarquin baptized him and he had to do it 5 times due to his legs popping out because the other elders forgot to tell us that the water leaks so it was like 5 inches shorter than normal. haha but it was great and beautiful and we even got some other investigators there. We also got two new investigators who are pretty positive and hopefully will start coming to church with us this next week named Tomassa and Enrique. I just love being a missionary! haha

Well I love you guys and hope all is well and dandy but I must get back to work. Watch the Mormon messages and I am a Mormon movies because they are awesome and inspiring and way more important than anything else. We need to be having a spiritual experience everyday.

LOVE ELDER OLIVER

August 28, 2012

Hola mi Querido Familia!

 

 Hooodaladdy it was good to hear from you all! I loved the letters this week and they left me feeling even happier than before. So a few quick answers-- No the hurricane did not get us, All it did was rain profusely, we didn’t even have to stay inside all day but when we do we study and sleep and workout and study and play a game or something but mostly study and sleep and catch up on things--hahaha doesn’t sound too fun but I love it! It’s like a readathon back in elementary! haha The Book of Mormon however is a lot more interesting and a more fulfilling read so we all come off winners! haha Yes I love bike riding and it is great! We are being super blessed by the Lord right now so we are having tons of fun and just work work working. I LOVE TO WORK. hahha it makes everything better and it fills you with an indescribable feeling of happiness. My comp Elder Jarquin is awesome and because I am not much of a phone guy and he is we work together great hahahaa. I have really got to practice making my texts interesting and friendly because it makes a huge difference! One I didn’t expect. No the dl thing is just for the transfer you are called to serve. So it changes a lot so everyone gets a turn. Yes we got a lot more contacts and one that is actually very very funny. So I want to tell you the story. So the other day we were doing peace and blessings which is a more powerful and very successful way of knocking doors hahaha. But we knock into this lady and she goes "NOOOOOPPEE I don’t wanna hear it!" and we were like kinda taken aback because while she said it she was smiling (we get the line all the time but not with the face) so we were like "We actually are hear to leave the saviors peace and blessing upon your home" anyways it gets into this huge like super funny battle where she makes up a thousand and five excuses and we destroy everyone and then she tries to get us to go away by offering us water but she wont close the door on us. hahaha so we keep going (the words of the apostles in our heads about being very persistent) It ends up we are just kinda laughing and slowly setting a return appointment with her sneakily. Well she keeps saying no and no and no but we tell her we are coming back for her and she laughs and tells us good bye. Well we went back to that area to talk to some people around her and she saw us through her window and took off to who knows where trying to avoid us. haha she really is a very nice lady-- just doesn’t want to hear it. BUT hears the funny thing. We knock a couple doors and no one answers which is like weird. So we kinda decide to go to Walmart and get a couple things that we had forgotten to get. Well we walk straight into Walmart and who do we see? Yep Mrs. Rosa! hahaha she had like 2 boxes of fudge brownies and some chocolate syrup and some chocolate cereal so we give her a hard time saying things like "Hermana I think this is a sign;)" hahahaha she just starts laughing and talking to us and tells us how she tried to avoid us but apparently it didn’t work. She talked to us for like 10 min and then we told her we would come by this week. She said okay but make sure it’s at a good time. hahaha pretty sweet eh? Asides from that yes our baptism is solid as a rock and I am super happy to see him get in the water. He is super prepared and ready to go. We decided Elder Jarquin would do the baptism and that a member would confirm him and we are on our way. Not to mention we also saw another pair of investigators who actually saw us and came over to talk to us! So we were pretty excited to see them too. Ahh things are just going awesome and I am loving it. Also that was a service opportunity we had and it was tons of fun. We went with the ward and it was a great time. It was some program for feeding kids.

Anyways I love my mission I love being out here and I love your letters. I LOVE you guys. We are an eternal family, one that will make it. I love knowing that my family is good and that my family is obedient to the principles taught by the prophets, that my family goes to church, that my family sticks together and is founded on the gospel, that my family loves me, that my family wants to hear and talk with me and hear ALL my stories. I love you guys more than anything. I also wanted to tell all of you that if you are not reading the Book of Mormon you have no promise. Personally studying it. Not just family scripture at night. Sorry I just really have a big testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon and I really hope that you guys are all reading it daily by yourselves. I love you!

LOVE,  ELDER OLIVER