May 6, 2013

(Just a glimpse of what he might look like when he is older!! --  I love it!)

Querida familia mia!

I have to apologize soo much because I have like no time today due to the fact that I forgot my wallet and now my companions are waiting on me so I have very short time! I will try to get as much as I can! Yes we are skyping. I will have to skype you right before your church time so like 3 or 4 our time which is 12 or 1 your time. We have church at 11:30 to 2:30 our time so we will be running as fast as we can to a members house to be able to skype. I will probably call you on Saturday to fill you all in but be ready if I don’t. I am happy to be coming home. I am very sure that it will be the best thing and I can’t wait to see you guys.

This week was a little slower because we had so many meetings but we did get to see the most important people. Joe hasn’t taught us anything yet but wants to and we hope to do it soon. Mom your Mothers Day gift will be late I am trying to figure everything out but it might come after I get home. :( Well this week Manny lost his job.... But then because he was such a great worker his boss got him another one and he starts today. (They had to fire him because some guy was harassing an old lady and Manny stepped in and pretty much swore the guy out. But man did it humble him! He promised to never lose his temper like that again. Satan works hard but Heavenly Father works harder! haha We also were able to help out our zone a little bit by organizing a huge blitz! It was pretty cool and we taught this black family. Super nice people and I think Heavenly Father made me look like a fool to open their hearts up a little because I asked about this picture on their wall that looked like a drawing of Jesus and I asked about it.... ends up being Bob Marley! hahahaha Then I asked whose daughter was the little girl runnin around.... ends up being a boy. hahahahaha So they are bustin’ up laughing and they tell us we need to come back! So that was really cool and they really liked the peace and blessing we gave them. Sometimes that southern hospitality is just beautiful. Anyways this week was awesome-- I will tell you more about it later on Sunday! I love you and hope to talk to you all soon!
LOVE ELDER OLIVER

April 29, 2013

FAMILIA MIA,

Well just to break the news nice and quick......... I am now coming home the 29^th of May. Nothing big really happened but after talking with President a little --he quoted to me and Elder Vasher the words of the prophet "Missionaries are to go home on time and get on with life." So that is what we are doing. 4 weeks and I will be back! That is quite the time cut eh? hahaha I am super confident in this decision because I feel good about it. It was exciting while we had it going but it must not have been the Lords will because it didn’t work out so hot. Plus we had a missionary return and I just really got the feeling that that’s exactly what we also need to do. SO May 29^th and all is well. As for you guys I am soo happy everything worked out so great. Fantastic pictures by the way ;) hahha way to go clay!! CONGRATULATIONS CHELSEY!!! I am super proud of you and so happy that you have been able to graduate from college-- what an accomplishment! I hope it was everything you hoped it would be. Also super glad to hear about all the missionaries going out! It’s going to be sooo cool and exciting. Well I have to let you know that this morning I had another unconscious talking in the which I sat up (we wake up early in order to have an hour work out) and all I say is "para ser sexy verdad?" which basically means "gotta be sexy right?" hahaha yea my companions are having a good time with all the weird things that come out of my mouth. I don’t remember saying it at all. But anyways the octopus was really good. President goes home in July and the new mission president is President Cusick. Also Bishop Catmull is now the first counselor in the stake presidency here and came to our church meetings this week and he still has great Spanish! Pretty weird seeing him around all the time not going to lie. Great guy though-- its just like as if I were home. Also weather is great not too hot yet which is strange, and yes my clothes are goin to make it but I am gonna need just about new everything when I get home. I am pretty much bringing my two suits 2 pants a few white shirts and some ties. Maybe like 3 pairs of garments, pretty much no socks (pretty holey) and a few pairs of shoes. I also don’t know if you think we should get the bike shipped home. Its pretty beat up and Elder Vasher actually took it down to Immokalee because his bike is a road bike and that place is all torn up. Well needless to say he had to replace some parts and such but he says it’s still a great bike. Talk to Scott he might have need of it. and I would totally ship it to him. Also we think the baptisms are going to go through but we will see. We made a lot of progress this week and now the Garridos are back on track. They just needed a little talking to. Manny is doing good and his son is doing great also. We also found this new guy named Joe who is awesome. He already believed in the pre -existence before we even told him about it. He loves when we are over and is already marking his Book of Mormon. He is a big guy and wants to teach us a little bit of fighting that he has learned so we might have a few fun pdays. hahahaha He is super into it! Then the Hernandez family is doing really good also. They now are all at every lesson and they are ready and prepared for when we come over. It’s been pretty cool to see them progress a little. We are just doing awesome and having so much fun! We also found these new Cubans and Maria committed to read the whole Book of Mormon in one week! She committed herself to it! She is just super desirous to know. We will see if she can get it done! Pretty cool right? The Lord is just blessing us so much. I love this work and it has been such a blessing to serve and work in this area! Preaching the gospel has probably been the most satisfying and fulfilling thing I have ever done! I love the scriptures and I really hope that you guys are making time to read them. I hope you all know how much I love you and how excited I am for everything to come. I know its going to be like heaven when I get to hug you all and tell you how much I love you. I hope you know that I know this gospel is true. It is the biggest and most merciful blessing the Lord has ever given us to be able to be members of the true restored church. I know the scriptures are the words of our loving God given to His prophets and that as we study them and act according to them we will find more peace and happiness in this life than ever before. There is a reason that the Mormons are a happy people and that God’s people have always been a delightsome and happy people. The atonement is infinite and will work every time. I love it and I use it every day. I know that Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer and to serve as his disciple has been life changing and shaping. I love my Heavenly Father. He knows me and I have felt His love in so many ways. I hope you also look and seek after His love. It will be the foundation upon which no one will fall. Sorry this letter is so haphazard...

HHHHHHAAAAAAPPPPPPPYYYYYYY BBBBBBBIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRDDDDDDAAAAAAYYYYYY TTTTTTTOOOOOO YYYYYYOOOOOOUUUUUUU AAAAHHHHHHHAAAAAAAPPPPPYYYYYYYY BBBBBBIIIIIIRRRRRRDDDDDDAAAAAAAYYYYYY TTTTTTTTTOOOOOOO AAAAAYYYYYOOOOOUUUUUU HHHHHAAAAAPPPPYYYYYYY BBBBBBIIIRRRRRDDDAAAAYYYY AAAADDDDEEEAAAARRRRR CCCCHHHHEEEEEELLLLLLSSSSSSEEEEYYYY HHHHHHAAAAAAAPPPPPPYYYYYY BBBBIIIIIRRRRRDDDDDDAAAAYYYYY TTOOO AAAAYYOOOOUUUUUUUU!U!U!U!U!U!U!U!!!!!UUU!!!!!!

I hope you have an awesome and wonderful birthday and know that I love you sooo much.

LOVE ELDER OLIVER

Ps Yes I will skype you next week! hahahaa like two weeks before I go home!



April 22, 2013

Querida Familia Mia!

Well this was quite the week, let me tell you! Sounds like you guys are also having the time of your lives! hahahaha Hopefully everything works out for you and that it all goes smoothly and that you just enjoy the good moments. As Christ would say peace be unto you--don’t forget to include the Lord in all these things. I am sure you do. I love you guys and I hope you also know how excited I am to see you guys! It’s coming quick! The days are just crossing themselves off. haha Also I will probably be home around the 28 or the 29 of June because President wants us out before the new mission president arrives. So take off 2 or three more days! hahaha

As for the questions, Everything is great and wonderful. We love our new son who is dorky and funny and just a great guy set on learning the language. We definitely got the best one. His name is Elder Beach. So we call him Elder Playa because Hispanics have a hard time pronouncing his name so a lot of bad words are goin’ around when they try! hahahaaha Manny is still heading towards May and hopefully he can get there! Not only that-- his son wants us to baptize him too. About Flavio, he is still a great guy. We actually are seeing him on Tuesday, he just is going through a really stressful moment, and we kinda put some more on when we told him he needed to come to church. Hopefully we can get in and settle him a little before it goes to far. However we were able to go back and see the Colon’s and they are doing terribly. We knew they would and it is just soo sad to have to watch it. They are very open and they even tell us that they have not felt peace since we left. They tell us they knew it was true and that what we taught really helped them out, They recognize that everything has gone down and that life is empty without the gospel. The Hermana is a lot nicer and she never really wanted to leave but she supports her husband who kinda got prideful and after he got all that he wanted, decided to try and find what is wrong with us rather than continue to search for

truth. So she tries to be supportive of him but I can just look in her eyes and see the hurt and the desire to start learning again. We are the only people her husband has ever listened to about God. So we are trying to get back in there and start up what has been stopped but the Hermano is hurt. He knows that what he has done is his fault and he will have to overcome much pride to get back to where he was. We are excited and I know its gonna happen! hopefully... I feel like lately I have just been able to love with my heart a little more wide open. I feel like I have been a little better at understanding the whole situation rather than just the surface. We also are working with the Hernandez and they are doing great but we are going to have to move the date because we just found out that they are actually not married. SOOO we will see when that happens. We also are doing great with finding many more people and actually happened across a woman who is friends with a member in our ward and hopefully we will be able to see them soon. We are seeing our less actives become active and we are making great progress it just takes a maximum amount of patience and humility. I love it and it has been such a blessing for me. As for the extension I don’t want you guys to get excited or worried but we are looking into it a little and a couple sad things have happened so we are not so sure about it anymore. I am just praying my lights out to know what to do because I am sooooooo excited to see you guys but the service I can give the Lord is priceless and blesses my life so richly. I have been talking with the President about it and hope to find out soon what is up. I am sorry but today is a little short due to a couple things we have to do.

QUICK LIGHTNING ROUND

I ate octopus tentacles this week and it wasn’t half bad

I am still weighing about 185 so I am a bigger boy

I am very lacking on movie quotes nowadays

I am Abraham, Elder Durrant is Sarah and Elder Beach is Isaac (because we bore a child in our old age)

I can't wait to see pictures of all the stuff going on this week

I like spicy stuff but it always gives me the hiccups

I witnessed a man eat 15 pancakes from Dennys

I witnessed the eating of a 28 inch pizza

I got to have a papaya smoothie that was actually very good

We got 2 more companionships in our zone

We have 9 companionships in our zone

We have 6 dates set right now (some will be moved back)

Did you hear about the Boston bombing?

My Spanish is getting better

I can almost quote all of Finding Faith in Christ in Spanish also The Testaments

I love Hispanic music, and have much to listen to when I get home

I set a goal with a member who wants to take me and Elder Durrant to Columbia next summer

I also am having weird dreams

I am a weird guy while still in sleep mode and am known to say many a weird things that don’t make sense and then never remember saying them

I LOVE YOU!
LOVE ELDER OLIVER

April 15, 2013

Buena’s Dias Herman’s, Hermanas, Papa, Y Mama,

Ha-ha this was a beautiful week here in Tampa and things are just going to keep getting even better! Yep Manny is getting baptized in May and now so is his son. President has not been able to come with us lately because of transfer preparations but now that that is over he should be coming. Garridos are going a little slower now. They have very catholic backgrounds and it is gonna be a bigger jump than they expected. They also have some family issues (a 22 year old anti-social daughter who does not want them to join who only wants to spend time with them on Sunday), But aside from that the Hermana is starting to really read the Book of Mormon and the father is just swell. However the coolest part is their little daughter named Alexa. She is super smart and loves us! She is 4!! However she sets up all her dolls in her room and teaches them about Joseph Smith and Nephi and Lehi and Alma and how we have to be baptized and repent and how we can be together as families if we are good. On top of that she doesn’t watch little kid movies anymore because she prefers to watch the Book of Mormon stories (the still life pictures with narration) or listen to them on the radio. So her mom and dad are always hearing about Nephi and the barca, Ammon and the brazos, Moroni and the planchas. Pretty cool right?? hahaha She is soo special! Oh she acts out all our family nights too! We once did this activity where I got up and did a little jig singing "Quiero Bailar" and then had everyone try to copy me exactly. Well there is a cough at the beginning so we were always saying "casi hermano! pero no fue perfecto" or "oh so close but it wasn’t perfect. So one day this little girl is

teaching her dolls and doing the jig and everything and her parents walk in on her and somehow they got her to do it later on film so we could all see it! haha It was one of the cutest things I have ever seen. As for the transfer calls we just got-- I am staying here for the next 6 weeks and Elder Durrant is staying too but we are getting a third companion who is a new missionary waiting for his visa to Argentina. So we are super excited and get to pick up our baby tomorrow! And my son (Elder Russell) is having a son (training) so I will have a grandson!!!!! Being a ripe old age has its blessings. Now I can spoil the lad and leave him to papa. hahahaha Can’t wait to actually be old!

As for our week we were able to meet and exceed all of our goals except for sacrament... We were somehow just very blessed and things just worked out very very well. However I had the phone when one of our favorite investigators Flavio called and pretty much told me we were a sect and that he could never believe in our church and that he had prayed really hard the night before because we had passed by--and he had a question come to his mind so he set out to find it. Well he called some missionaries that served in Puerto Rico quite a few years ago that had been the ones to start teaching him and to our beautiful luck they have gone off the deep end and are now Baptist pastors, BOTH OF THEM. Well they most kindly led him to much anti-doctrine and many a beautiful website that led him to believe that we are a cult and we have nothing but lies. I graciously took it and kinda told him that if he believed everything on the internet then we would have to come by and show him our horns, and a couple other things people like to say about Mormons. It ended up terribly but he said we could still come by we just couldn’t invite him to church nor talk about the Book of Mormon nor Joseph Smith nor anything like it. So we being called to work with they who are ready and humble of heart and poor in spirit will have to visit him occasionally now. Anyways asides from that we set 6 baptismal dates this week, 4 with the Hernandez family and 2 with Manny and his son. Then we found Isalivett who is super interested and is 11 and now she is reading the Book of Mormon and having her mom read it too! Pretty cool. She understands more than anyone I know. She comes over to the Hernandez home every time we are there so she can learn too. Because her mom is a little less interested. We also met a woman named Diana who has had probably one of the roughest lives I have ever heard of. She is from Mexico and had to go through so many things. I can’t believe she is still normal and believes in God. But it was probably one of the most special opportunities for me to be able to tell her that the message we share brings peace and comfort to those who are willing and ready to hear. She wants to learn soooo bad! She has some awesome stories about crossing the border too. Like after much happening she was alone in the desert bleeding and being chased by a dog when the border patrol lady called off the dog and told her which way to go to make it. She then realized she couldn’t go on any longer not having eaten or had anything to drink in a long time. She said she stretched out her hand and said "God I am in your hands, I cannot do this, carry me please." She said she closed her eyes and felt something guide her. Well she ends up in a city two hours drive from where she was. She had no idea how she got there. Just closed her eyes and pleaded. She then was reunited with her children and able to come here to Florida. She has been through sooo much more. I felt so much love and caught another glimpse of what the Savior had to suffer there in the garden as He performed the infinite atonement. We also just got introduced to a new Cuban family who was referred to us by a member. They had been really looking for a church and when Enrique (the son of the member) came to their house they asked what religion he was. He told them Mormon so the dad went online and found much info and then proceeded to ask Enrique who clarified some of it, The dad went back to the internet and then the next day or 2 we show up and for some reason I felt inspired to tell them we don’t believe in more than one wife and that we don’t worship Joseph Smith. We then gave him a mormon.org card and told him to go there without knowing about any of this. He was super grateful and super excited to know more about us. They asked us to help move some things but that they would then love to have us over to teach. So super cool experience eh? The member called and told us that later that night. But asides from that we had some great lessons and a couple other cool experiences that have really helped settle me for the last full transfer before the extension. I am super excited and I love this work.

Hope you guys are all having lots of fun and getting ready because I am coming home soon!!! I love you with all my heart or as the Spanish say "con todo mi corazon!"

LOVE, ELDER OLIVER

April 8 2013

Familia Mia,

Well this last week was pretty crazy. We had so many things to do and it ended up just flying by like lightning--holy camole. I loved every moment of it and we were really blessed by the Lord this week. Yes I did get the Easter package and thank you so very much! I truly appreciate it and it was not only delicious but scrumptious as I put on that beautiful nice tie! ha-ha Thank you so much. You guys are the greatest. MY WHAT CAME TO YOU GUYS? Holy camole that came quick! Hahaha So there goes almost two years... hahahahaha I am super excited and just really grateful for everything I get to do and experience out here. I really cannot wait for Cassie and Clay to just continue it and to excel in every way. I know they will! So please don’t write Arabia on that paper or anything eh? haha Also I do hope you (mom and dad) know that I do want to go on vacation. Why in the world would I not??  In all honesty the arguments that have been had on family vacations have been the greatest. I have had many a quarrel out here with companions and what is really funny is that those usually become the ones I love the most. I don’t think it would be as much fun or as much of an adventure if there were not the occasional quarrel. Plus heavens to Betsy please forgive me for ever being a sack and sitting around waiting for you guys to do everything. I couldn’t even pack my own bag back then or do my chores. HAHAHAHA Chores.... We have some of the most intense inspections out here and I am not very easy on my companions because if they decided to do a half way job we get a terrestrial instead of a celestial. We scrub a dub dub and that’s after many other elders destroying the apartments before. What I have come to realize is that video games stink. haha But anyways I hope you know that I never would not want to go or have anything else more important in my life than the wonderful time we get to spend as a family. Is that not exactly what was taught at the general conference?? By the way I LOVED conference. We watched all 10 hours and I felt like it was more of 10 min. Goodness I am all out of General Conference sessions on my mission. But the things that were taught have seriously touched, engrained and fanned my fire. I have never felt as good as I do now. I love my Savior and my Heavenly Father-- they know me. But a little about the progress, Manny is doing good we didn’t get to see him because he was on work call, Hernandez is doing great kinda, The girls are seriously opening up to us and talking with us more openly but the mom and dad were not there for both lessons this week. We had to bring Omar but he is also doing good. I hope you know I bought him the mission library for 12 dollars on the home card because our cards don’t let us do transactions online. So he is diving into Jesus the Christ. But while we were teaching the Hernandez girls they brought a friend named Isa. She listened in very well and understood the Book of Mormon better than the girls we were teaching. Well later she got up the courage and asked us for a Book of Mormon. We told her we would get her one and found out that her and her mom had been taking lessons in Puerto Rico. We have a lesson with them on Tuesday. The Lord provided about 3 more great referrals and we found another family. His name is Hector and he was out raking leaves when we asked if he needed help. Kindly he declined but then Elder Durrant points to all the chickens in his back yard. So he takes us back there and we end up starting a great relationship with him. His wife then comes out and ends up being pretty interested also because the man is actually a drunk. So she got super excited and invited us over for the next day. Well when we went over she intently listened and told us she wanted to go to our church. However she is leaving for Columbia in 2 days for a month! So that is kinda bad but we can still work with her husband. Then we were able to find out why some of the recent converts in this area are not coming and sadly it is because of cancer. I feel like the Lord is trying to teach me the concept to love those who need to be loved, mourn with those that mourn, be happy with those who are happy because sometimes I feel like from house to house to house my emotions are on a rickety ol ghost rider rollercoaster. We are happy at one, crying at another, feeling pain at the next, seeing the buds of hope in another, and enjoying the peace and gratitude that comes from having made the decisions and seeing the blessing that come. It is wonderful and beautiful. I love this mission. We also had some great meetings as we had district meeting and zone leader meeting and all the conferences and such and a couple other normal things but they kept us quite busy.

Wow I hope you all got some great things from conference. I felt like it was centered on being able to find peace in this life and how to share that with others. It is interesting because the only emotion or feeling that Satan cannot imitate is peace. We are bringers and producers of this peace and we have the fountain. We find peace in this life as we obey, as we come to know who we are and why we are here, as we understand why we have trials and how to overcome them, as we fast and search the sacred and holy scriptures, as we learn to keep our virtue and how to inspire that in others, and as we build an everlasting and firm foundation upon the Savior as we open our hearts to Him in earnest prayer seeking to do His will and trying our best to have His will be ours. I loved each and every one of those talks. I realized that some of them inspired me on how to do something, some inspired me what to do, and some inspired me to go and do. All are so effective and have already helped me as a missionary. I feel so much more love and gratitude also as I realized just how big of a blessing it is to be born in the church. We really struck the lotto, because there is a .24% or .00241667 of being a Mormon. We truly are blessed by our loving Heavenly Father. I love Him with all my heart. I hope you guys also begin to share what you have and that you study. The only way to get a testimony is to do what everyone else has done before which is to read and pray sincerely. I love this gospel. It is so simple and yet so complex and wonderful. I love you guys with all my heart and wish I could talk with you all day. I hope you are preparing to talk a lot of gospel with me because that has been my language and my topic of speaking with everyone for two years. hahaha I hope to never change that. Be ye an example of the believers. You guys are the greatest. Chelsey Cassie and Clay I love you so much and think about you guys a lot. I love the letters whenever they come. Carlee, Cami and Chloe I love you also and truly hope to give you guys the biggest hug when I get home. Mom and dad you guys have established and taught me in the ways of righteousness and I am forever grateful to you for that. I have come to the realization that everything has changed, that you guys won’t be or look the same when I get back but neither will I. I know this church is the true church; I love you all with all my heart.

LOVE,  ELDER OLIVER