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