March 4, 2013

(talking to Chantz on Christmas--can't believe he will be home in 3 1/2 months!!)

Familia Mia!

Well I am just right and dandy. Things have been quite a bit of a rollercoaster this week let me tell ya. We had a lot of great things and a lot of pretty sad and disappointing things too. But they weren’t really disappointing. First off though sounds like the family is doing great and that everything is coming together pretty well. I love to hear that you guys are all doing great and that things are awesome. Congratulations to Cassie!! I cannot believe you graduated from hair school!! I am so excited for sweet haircuts! hahhaha Well I must say I am fairly trained with a buzzer. I have cut my hair and quite a few others hair too but a few times it was pretty embarrassing. So I trust you will do a much better job than I could ever do. Mom “Elder Juice” is super healthy! It helps the body functions right and actually has helped our members lose a lot of weight just with better body function. It maintains his diabetes and his sleeping patterns have returned to normal! Plus we have been sleeping like champs! hahaha We wake up way easier now than before. The only downfall is Mr. Gift. hahahaha But that adds color to life. Actually the member once let one slip! It was quite funny. I did get readmitted this week and my scholarship is back on and I almost have my major changed to Business Entrepreneurship. I got my ASU account back up and I am ready to register by March 26. So we were lucky because Elder Durrant just got in to BYU so he had a bunch of stuff to do on the computer so I just did all mine too! hahah I will have to look the classes up and give you a list of all the ones I need. So you guys can go on and do it on the 26th. I feel a lot more organized and capable nowadays.. hahhaa Blessings I tell ya. Manny is well and we have an appointment with him on Thursday because transfer week was busy. By the way I am staying with Elder Durrant and will probably finish here. For my birthday just save the money please because I am telling you right now none of my pants are going to fit and any shirt smaller than a large is not going to either. hahaha Plus I have plenty out here to make it the last 4 months. But I would ask for some fresh garments for when I come home. Two years and a lot of bike riding and sweat have done some work. I feel like I am 20 but nowadays people are guessing like 23 to 25 so I don’t know. This is going by soooooo fast! haha Well we also just got the car back for full car again which means sisters here are now on car share and so is everyone else who is not zone leader. haha

Well as for the work and my week--like I said it’s quite the rollercoaster. We had a beautiful family night with our two most progressing investigators the Garrido family and the Colon family and our ward mission leader-- The Betancourt family. We watched the Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration video and it was great! They liked it a lot, or so we thought. Well last week the Colon family had come to church and had said they really liked it but then when we had planned to go over this week they ended up dropping us pretty hard. They sat us down and begin to tell us how they didn’t think the movie had talked enough about God, and how church should have been longer, yea longer! Then they start into how we talk too much about prophets because the talks were quoted with many lines from prophets and such on Sunday. Then after really trying to follow the Spirit because they were like wrenching my heart we get them to admit that every time they prayed to know if this is the true church they have felt peace, and they recognize all the blessings they have gotten since starting with us. It came to the point where I realized my Heavenly Father was teaching me something. The line from preach my gospel that says "Even after you have done all you can do, People still have their agency." The quote kept coming to my mind and reminding me that I have to accept that and let go. In that moment when I decided to let go I can honestly say I began to cry. I felt so much love and have tried so hard to love these people but allowing them their free agency was just all I could do. I realize now that it takes even greater love to give in and let others make that choice. I witnessed what Heavenly Father must feel when we make wrong choices. Letting go and letting them do something that will destroy all they have obtained by respecting free agency requires Great love. I did not cry because I believe this is the end, I did not cry because I may not see them baptized I cried because just as the scripture says in 2 Nephi 28 :30 they will lose everything they have been given. They will be brought to their knees in humility and they will have to realize what they have done. I do not want them to suffer what they have chosen to suffer but repentance is a beautiful thing. I love that I was able to experience this. That my Heavenly Father saw fit to teach me this concept. I feel it will take a lot longer to be good at it but its starting. Also that same day we got a message from one of my favorite investigators because she is a little bit of a battle, saying that she did not want to continue with us either, that her pastor from Puerto Rico had told her many things about us and that she no longer wanted to see us. So over the phone I reminded her about the peace she had felt with us and begged to be permitted to answer questions. Well--we go over and in a short and very easy loving manner we were able to reconvince her and to settle her nerves. I love the gospel because it is true and brings peace to our souls where other things cannot. Well she ends up sharing with us how she thinks of missionaries as angels. Omar was with us and he also begins to share how that’s exactly how he feels. That they come when needed and when we are standing-- they must leave to help others. It was very intesting because in a study I did back in Wauchula I followed a chain of scriptures and words and was led to the understanding that missionaries are angels. And I always thought that was very cool and interesting but to live it and hear it from the mouth of someone else is a whole different experience. I felt so much love again as I realized the blessing it is to serve, to be those angels, to bring peace, love and happiness to those who are seriously in need of it. To go among the poor of spirit and to share the message of the restoration, to teach the plan of salvation and to help others realize they are heirs to the kingdom of God. It’s a very beautiful thing. However we had the Garrido family finally at church and it was awesome! The Spirit was SUPER strong and they left happy as clams. haha However we just got news not five minutes ago that they were in a car accident and that it was serious. We are going to see them in the hospital soon. Also our bishop just had a stroke and is also in the hospital. So many ups and downs for this week. We also got a new investigator who is super into learning. Not to mention we had been thinking about knocking this one certain house that our investigator lady wanted us to go to, but we were at a lesson with someone else when this lady asks us to come to her house and it ends up being that exact house!! How crazy is that? I am sooo stoked to go over and start teaching. She is sooo nice and was actually interested enough to give us her information and ask us to come over. We really didn’t even do anything! haha I can just promise that the Lord provides when we ask and act.

Lightning round. 2 Nephi 28: 30 is my favorite verse to help people feel comfort with us and was actually something that really helped me on my mission because I thought I had to be awesome from day one till going home. I hope you all know any success I have is not from what I do but from what the Lord does for us. I believe the Book of Mormon to have powers that we can’t even comprehend. I weigh 185 still. I love fasting. It almost snowed in Florida. I am almost done with Jesus the Christ and have developed a hunger for it. I LOVE EMPANADAS. I hope you know we always have a place to stay here in Florida. I may be sending a guy named Sergio who is an awesome return missionary who served in California to come and visit you. The cancer in the father of the Berrios family has completely gone away. although we had to give him to the sisters here. I am super excited for all of you to get to serve a mission and I know it will be the greatest adventure of your life. Any preparation you do now will help. Watch the District videos online. They will help your desire. I love you and miss you guys so much!

LOVE, ELDER OLIVER