January 15, 2011

Hola Familia!
WOW time is going by so fast and things are changing real swift like. We had another awesome week here in Wauchula and we got transfer calls and I was lucky enough to experience another Miracle or two. So to sum it up in a nutshell I am doing real swell.

Now as for me and how I am doing over here in what could definitely be considered the greatest area of the mission. Well We Wauchulans Will Wait Willingly While We Wilt When We Woefully Whip Wonders. hahaha Sorry in other words we are separating and I am staying here and my now good friend and soon to be missed companion is heading off to Tampa. I however will have something else crazy happen to me because I am receiving my trainer Elder Berry again. So here is the pattern 123112 that’s transfers and number of companion (elder Clark is 1 berry is 2 Larson is 3) Weird I think so considering I have already done time with him. But its okay and hopefully all will be well. I guess its time for me to learn what I did not learn with him before. As for everything else we are awesome. We did not reach our goal this week. we got 19 and I actually find that ok because the last two days were kinda about letting Elder Clark see and visit all the people who want to see him before he leaves which is like everyone. So we have had some great bbqs and some fun get together but we lacked by one with our goal so this week is the time to fix that and do even better. We did have an awesome week besides that. We visited many people and this week we just so happened to set two more baptismal dates. One with Ramon finally for the 20 of May so kind of a joke but at least it is set and now we can work on making it more soon. And the other is Jose Deleon who has been around the church for 13 years and now we finally have a date for the 12th of February! super awesome and we are so excited because we now have 4 dates set and all of them are rather sure to happen. We also have started a new guy named Benjamin and he is awesome too. He got in a car wreck and now has metal poles all over in his body and so he limps around a lot on these crutches. He however is really into the Book of Mormon. We gave him the intro to read and he ended up reading to chapter ten in first Nephi. So we talked a lot and hopefully we get to see him make some changes. Then I got to bear a strong testimony to one of our most important investigators the Olmos Grandparents this week. They are very important because we are sure that if they are baptized about 60 or more people (family) will fall right behind them. Plus they really are way cool and super nice. Grandpa Olmos loves showing us his trucks and how he does lots of man things. Like mud riding and gun shooting and what not. It has really made me think about how I might have to hit the bro scene a little when I get back. ha-ha I am really starting to like big trucks. hahahaha So things are just going really well for us oh not to mention we get fed at least 2 times a day. The members here are like in love with feeding us because we have taken to saying things like "WOW this looks so good! I wish I could cook like this. How did you make this? Wow that must take a lot of talent. Your food is some of the best food I have ever tasted!" all of this and more and the best part is that we aren’t lying. We really feel like this and it really tastes that good especially after eating Velveeta and ramen all day. By the way try Velveeta shells boxes they are soooooo good. That was a recommendation for Clay knowing he shares my delight for things easy to cook and delicious.

Now as for my little miracle for this week it’s funny to me because it was one of those humbling moments and I realized how far I still have to go. Well yesterday we went to frisbee out in Sebring and then to the church to help Hermana Deleon with her baby shower (we had to be there in order for a member of the priesthood to be present and we also went to help) and then to Bowling green and finally to Marcelinas. Well we get home and I realize I don’t have my Wallet. Yep everything I need to survive is gone and I have no idea where it is. I search the car up and down all my pants all of my room all of the downstairs all of everywhere. I call someone and ask if they have seen it and if they will check the frisbee field and many other things I did to find this wallet. Well nothing and so I sleep. Next morning I do it all over again and to no avail finally I get this little like "Hey you should pray" in my head. I felt pretty stupid that I hadn’t even prayed yet being a missionary who teaches all about prayer, but I continued searching thinking I would just have a prayer in my heart and that it would be sufficient. Well finally it comes down to "get on your knees ya bum" kinda whispers and so I do and I kneel down on our downstairs couch. It was weird because it was one of those as soon as you kneel down you already feel the spirit kinda prayers. Well I offer up my prayer making sure to repent for not having prayed earlier and recognizing that that will be different and no joke as soon as I peeped my eyes open there was my wallet. Right in front of my face. Like if I had stuck my tongue out I would have licked it. Yea that bad. WOW. I can’t even blame it on the glasses this time. I felt so humbled and so loved all in the same moment. I seriously felt like crying. I have no idea how it got there but there it was right in the corner of the couch right where I had knelt down. I would advise you all to listen the first time things come and to never take for granted the power of doing the small things. I know my Heavenly Father was there for me in that moment and that I was worthy enough to witness a small miracle. He gives them to us everyday we just have to realize they are there. I love you guys and miss you soooo much and hope everything is the best. I love your testimonies and I hope they keep growing. You are the best family!

LOVE,

ELDER OLIVER

Hola Familia!
Well things are going awesome and little beyond awesome for me here in Florida but I must say that it sounds the same for you guys. Let me tell ya I have just had an awesome and fantastic week too. It was one of those wow this is the life weeks. haha To start off Elder Clark and I are doing extremely well. It’s sad because I know that as soon as we learned to cooperate we would be split. Transfer calls are this weekend and I am actually debating doing something mean so as to confuse the whole system and make him stay here so I can "learn my lesson" hahaha no just kidding but we really have come to be very good friends and I really have just learned and grown a lot from being around him. Not to mention we do work together! He has everything I don’t have-- so we end up filling in the spaces that the other is missing. It’s pretty cool and we get to see the work go forth because of it. So whatever happens I will be ok with it but I can honestly say that I will truly be sad to see Elder Clark go.
As for the work once again we reached our goal of 20 lessons a week and that was on top of the 7 family mission plans that we set up which don’t count as lessons not to mention 2 more baptismal dates were set for Feb. 12 and in the last 2 weeks we have come to find 10 new and pretty solid investigators. It has been awesome and just such a blessing. We talked to a lot of people and we got to get real deep into some of the problems of our less active family. It came to the point where we were talking about their goals and where they wanted to get and how they were going to get there and then it was funny because out came he excuses but even they had to realize there was no way around what we were asking of them. It’s really hard to do that kind of work and still show them that you love and care for them but the Lord was with us and I think we might have pricked their hearts in a good way. haha As for people like Ramón things are not going so well. We called him after the week was up and asked him if he was ready and he ends up making an excuse so we was rather feather ruffled but its interesting because today I found a verse that I am going to use. Read ALMA 32 I think it is like 6 or 16 it’s on the right page on the inside column. We will share this with him and set a date or we will have to drop him because we have seen that he was just wasting our precious time that we have here and ever since we have kinda dropped him we have been seeing so much success. It’s sad because I love him but I cannot force him to do anything nor do I want to. The lord prepares his people and maybe he is just getting ready for later. Who knows?
Well it has come to pass that I have partaken of another vile and despicable traditional food. Anyone ever heard of Menudo? hmm anybody? Dad wanna explain what it is? Oh yea its cow stomach. Big ol chunks of nice juicy cow stomach! oh so yummy in my tummy! NOT! Let’s just explain the details. So there we are after we just set our two baptismal dates and Hermana Cruz finishes cooking her two soups. Well she had also fed us like twenty min earlier with the pizza that her next door neighbor brought over. (She’s Jehovah witness and every time we come over she sends food to Hermana Cruz like there is no tomorrow.) haha We are the ones that end up eating it hahahahahaaha. Well anyways so there are these two soups and one is posole which is like pork chunks and hominy and the other is menudo. Well me and Elder Clark both wanted to try menudo but when she asked Elder Clark what he wanted he said posole because he thought she said mole which is another traditional dish and he had already tried that. So off he goes with the posole. apparently it was really good, but I being a little crazy and thinking I wanted to try everything at least once and understanding that she had said menudo asked for some of it. Well Elder Clark at first was a little jealous because he had wanted to try it and was sad that he had hadn’t heard right but let me tell ya he felt differently after like my first bite. Menudo is like a chunk of stomach about this big (use your fingers to measure off the computer screen). (----------------------------) mixed with liquid and hominy. Well menudo looks like gray brain with honeycomb on the inside. After I shoved the first bite in my mouth and they all were watching me I did ok but when the second bite came and no one was watching except Elder Clark my body convulsed and I nearly lost it. It was at this point that Elder Clark slowed down eating his soup so as not to appear hungry and ready to try some menudo. hahaha Well there is about a good 9 chunks in my soup and not to mention the liquid tastes just like it so I do my best and at one point I give a piece to Elder Clark and tell him to try not only to give him the experience but also to save my the struggle of getting it down my throat safely. Well he waits and because its a joke between elders to torture each other when in contact with these types of animals he slips it back into my bowl and puts his in the sink so that I am stranded and forced to finish what I have begun. Charity is a strange thing and I think this is one of those moments that I had it because I got it down and made it look like I enjoyed it and we left with everyone happy and feeling like pro cooks. But afterwards I could not help but gag and I felt so queasy the whole ride home. hahaha So Menudo is number one on the list of worst foods eaten while on the mission.
Well we also got to watch a church video with of the families in our ward this week called "Two brothers" and it is so good and if you don’t watch it I can honestly say your missing out. haha it’s on the BYU website so watch it. Well I also last night partook of an extremely hot jalapeño that was huge and I did it without drinking or eating anything. Like a man hahaha just kidding. But we spent some good time with Chito and Cruz and their family and they always invite us over for barbeque so we love going over there. The Juarez family is doing good but we are going to have to hit them with some kind of a spiritual bomb before they move too much. Well I love you guys and miss you so much and I am so grateful every week for the wonderful emails you send and that you always fill me in on everything. I can’t tell you how much it means to hear from you. It sounds silly but it’s a big deal out here. Asides from missionary work what else do we even talk about? hahaha Well I loved the glasses and they are awesome and super nice. Also thank you for the candy it always is there right when my body screams sugar. hahaha I just want tell you guys that I love serving my mission. There is nothing else in the world that brings happiness to our souls than sharing and studying the gospel. The hope joy peace and comfort that come are divine and eternal something that will never fade or loose luster. Heavenly Father has given me so much and I realize it more and more each day as I serve and study. You guys are a living example to me of the love that my Heavenly Father has for me. I bear my testimony that Jesus is the Christ and that this is the true and perfect church that He has restored upon the earth today through the prophet Joseph Smith. I bear witness of the power of the Book of Mormon and I know that by and through its teachings we can and will find eternal life. I love that my family is eternal and I know that we will all make it to the celestial kingdom someday where we will rest and live and become as god is. I love you and can’t wait till I can see you again. I hope you all have a great week and that you each try to get just a little better each day for that is Gods plan for us.
LOVE ELDER OLIVER

January 2, 2012

The best Christmas present---
So much fun to see him as you are talking!

Happy New Years! Y Bienvenidos a la carta electronico de yo.
Well like always this week was awesome. We had an awesome new years and we had some sweet lessons and I even got to go skating this week. hahaha. He is actually district leader right now which is why I was on an exchange with him this week. We have to do exchanges each transfer with the DL because they get trained on how to help us with our studies and such and so this week we were super excited to get to spend Monday night, all of Tuesday and Wednesday morning together. And that is how I got to skate this week. They have an investigator who skates and I had told them that I knew a little bit about it so off we go. It was way fun but I am way rusty hahaha. Only bad part was that the skate park got rained out so we had to skate on the street which was still fun but not nearly as good as the park. But while we were there we also visited a couple other people and had and awesome breakfast for dinner by a man who owns a restaurant in Chicago. mmmm way good and I left very "Husky" hahaha. Then on Wednesday it was back with Elder Clark and we went far out to see our recent converts and after we had to visit a couple of members so that day was pretty bad and slow considering only one lesson counted hahaa. Not to mention things had gone bad on Monday and Elder Clark and Sukhon had a rotten case of luck in the which no lessons were taught. So for Thursday we got to work and we ended up getting 7 lessons in one day. We did not stop all day and the lord kept helping us get into every house we went to. It was awesome. Then Friday was another four lessons in which we pretty much dropped Ramon because he we gave him the option of either setting a date or being dropped. He told us to not come over for a week and then next Sunday he would have decided. So fasting and prayers will come in handy. But it was really sad because he loves us as missionaries and we really have come to love him and care a lot for him. Hopefully it works out all right. Then luckily that night we were looking for a referrals house and while trying to find it we ran into like 6 guys who were all living in the same house because they all are seasonal pickers and they invited us in and all sat around while we taught them a little bit about our divine message. It went pretty well and we set a return appt for sometime this week so I will keep ya posted on how it is going. Now New Years Eve was sweet and It was the first time I got a big ol Mexican food slap in the face. haha We went out and visited quite a few members and we had some awesome lessons one of which was with the Deleon family which is really special to us because the wife loves us and we got her little boy to want to be baptized and now her husband is coming to church every week and we asked him about baptism and he told us he had been waiting for us to ask him that question. Apparently we need to tune our ears a little bit better. haha He said he expects to be doing it soon. We couldn’t set a date but after like 15 years of being around and denying it he now says he feels like its something interesting and very important. Wow how cool and when we talked to his wife she started crying because she said it meant so much to her that her family is changing and becoming something so great. It was such an experience one I won’t ever forget. It really reminded me of how special our family is. We are all strong unshakeable members of the true church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints and because of that we all know that we can make it back and be together for the eternities. It doesn’t hit you until you see another family that didn’t have that and now are so close to obtaining it. How special and blessed we are to have the blessings of the temple and to be sealed as a family. After the Deleon's we went to Chito (Straightup gtown mexicano, married a Juarez and just got the Melchizedek priesthood, awesome guy, also gave me my jersey, works in the slaughter house) and there we ate pig. Deep fried and juicy pig. Not just like ham or anything they bought a whole pig and cut it up and ate just about every part of it. I only got to try a little of it because we came a little late but I did get to eat the skin of the pig and no it wasn’t chicharones (pig skins that are super crispy like chips) it was still soft and you kinda had to rip at it a little and there was still some fat under the top layer but it was way good! I also got a few chunks of meat that had to be at least 70 percent fat. I couldn’t even see any meat on it! haha deep fried fat. mmmmmmmmmm Then we actually decided to go over to Ramón’s and surprise him with a soda we bought him and a box of mexican cookies that he loves so we could help him enjoy the new year. IT was fun and I think it was what he needed because I really think we are the best friends he has right now and so us leaving and not coming is being pretty hard on him. But we have explained that as missionaries we are here to find the people ready to be baptized and if he cant even set a date after 1 month and a half or more of teaching we have to use our time else where especially when we have visited him every day for the past month and a half. Then we had to call it an early night on new years so as to avoid the locitos on the road who are looking to mess around with the guys in white shirts and ties. haha So New Years was awesome.
Then on Sunday we had a great sacrament meeting and they asked me to give a talk on the mission plan we are trying to implement. They asked me 5 min before sacrament meeting starts and told me to go no longer or no shorter than 5 min. I guess I did alright because president Martinez gave me a pound as I left the pulpit. hahaha He is awesome and now we are studying the Book of Mormon and he is like an encyclopedia of scriptural knowledge. He has such a burning blazing testimony and I want one like it so bad so I have begun my dive to a bottomless pit of knowledge and doctrine. haha in other words I have decided to use study time for only the Book of Mormon. Depending on what heavenly father wants me to study of course. But we are working hard and doing our best and we actually ended up getting a little over twenty lessons this week (which is our goal because an apostle promised if we get twenty lessons a week we will get baptisms) even though we had an exchange a district meeting and interviews with President Summerhayes which took all day Friday. Like we didn’t get home till like 6 at night. Oh also on New Years, at twelve at night I get a phone call from this guy in our branch who is less active and he decided I am the guy to talk to about the breakup he just had with his pregnant wife for about an hour. So half asleep I try to be the best friend he needed and still be nice about his wife who is also our friend. I think that was another instant where heavenly father gave me a little charity. hahaha
Well I was soo excited to read all the letters and to hear how everything is going. I know you guys have probably had an awesome week off and some sweet holidays. I am sorry to hear that some people did not get a wand! Next year you both had better beg Santa panda for one so you can begin to practice for the wizard duels we shall all have some day. I love you guys and miss you soo very much. I wish I had more time to write but like always I am out of time. I honestly have come to realize that if I want to be obedient the only way to get you guys’ personal letters is to write them SO I might just have to start doing that instead. I miss you all and love ya tons, But I also love being out here and doing this work it is special to me. Keep me in your prayers and keep praying for all those people I mention even if you don’t know what to pray them. haha
LOVE ELDER OLIVER

December 26, 2011

Hola Familia otra vez!
Well well well it was ever so pleasant to chat and gabble with you all yesterday. I did find my fancies tickled in ever such a peculiar way. It was the weirdest thing watching you all go off the screen especially because dad was still talking when I hit the button hahahaha. Sorry dad. I just couldn’t believe that I had already made it to the first time when I would get to call my family! It has been soooo long, beautiful but long. Well first to get some business out of the way. Yes everything you sent was awesome and is going to work out great. The shirts all fit, the pants are just the right size and waist, I loved both of the books and I was so very grateful for them. I was happy you sent The Giving Tree seeing as it is also one of my favorites. But I do want to say that I really miss you guys and that all of you look super good. The little girls look so grown up and Clay is a beast soon to be like unto the statue of David (but with more than a leaf) and mom you always look pretty, and dad is still my dad peter pan. You seriously are the best family ever. I also liked how everyone got wands. However I must have been backfired upon by my obliviate spell and now the wands belonging to Chelsey and Cassie have slipped my mind. One is ginnys? and the other I cannot recall. So please inform me of this serious situation so I may again begin to live in comfort. Also I will send back the glasses with the case along with my memory card. So please send the other guy out pronto. Now as for how things went this week and what is coming up in the future. Transfers are on the 17 of January. I personally prophesy to stay here for a very very long time. This I do because there are no new missionaries who speak Spanish coming in for a very very long time. Neither are there any leaving. Elder Clark thinks he is out of here this transfer and he hopes to head to Tampa. That could very well be true. I will keep you posted especially because this is something I have become very fond of. Making predictions. It’s weird how people react when you predict something they don’t want. It’s like you are spitting filth at them . hahaha just makes it all the more interesting because the Lord has his plan and no one can change it. So I don’t get why we need to be bothered. But I do like to see if I can guess what is going to happen. As for this week things are going pretty good. Like I explained we are doing alright. We need to find again and get some NEW people going. We are still increasing but it will take quite a while to see some of these baptisms through. And personally I am here to find the people the lord has prepared for me not the ones who need to be prepared. I don’t mean I skip ya if you aren’t getting baptized right away but we use our judgment and ask Heavenly Father for His help to know what to do and right now it is all up to finding new. Really it was a slow week but I did find out why Hermano Juarez won’t go to church which he has never told anyone yet. It’s his pride. He told me sometimes in the church he cries because he feels the spirit and he doesn’t like to cry in front of people because it makes him look weak. Well it sounds like a dumb excuse but this is coming from a guy whose whole life was about having other people fear him. He was picked on a lot and he had to defend a lot of people and so his reputation had to be "don’t mess with me." I understand and we realize that it will come in time and right now we are just working to explain that power comes from the spirit and feeling the spirit is a way of becoming more powerful and then maybe give him example of great heroes that were filled so full with the spirit that they were overwhelmed. Things like that. We got to eat lots of tamales this week because they are Mexican tradition around Christmas time. And let me tell ya I had some pretty delicious ones. Most of this week was a lot of less actives and a few investigators because it was Christmas and we were sharing the message of His birth with everyone. Plus many people were gone so that made it just a little harder. But all in all things were great. I don’t have much time left so I will just say that I love you a ton and I miss every one of you. I hope everything was good and fun and that you really enjoyed this Christmas. It was special for me and I really hope it was for you. You are the best family in the whole zaboomafo-altion.
LOVE ELDER OLIVER
PS Another desire of my heart was answered this week when we had the opportunity to save a Christmas. This family had a fire in their house and had been moved to some shabby ol apartment like 2 days before Christmas. So doing everything we could to help them out we gave them a ton of goodies and my Christmas tree and a couple other things. I am just really appreciative that Heavenly Father keeps on giving me these opportunities. They are great and help me to remember who is my God and that he loves me soo much.

December 19, 2011

Dear Mom,
Hey here’s the business for the week. I did get your two packages you sent and I can’t tell you how grateful I was to get them both! The banner with all the Christ pictures was awesome and had such cool pictures some of which I have never seen. Second the 12 days is going well and in all honesty I am being patient and only opening one per day. They are all soo cool and they have all been things that I have just kinda needed. SO thank you very much. Also tell Grama and papa that I received their package and that the shoes are perfect! They really are very cool and I can now where a different pair of shoes and save my nice ones. They also are super comfy and they make me look good hahaha. Please relay that to them also tell them thanks for the money and that I believe their plan will be awesome with the whole money situation. I have not yet got the package from Grammy and Grampy but it should probably get here soon. Also could you tell the Weeches that I got the package from them and that it is quite scrumptious! hahaha It was a sweet popcorn box filled with lots of goodies. Tell them I miss them all and that I will really try super hard to get some sort of a letter out to them this week. Oh also the pants you sent are far too small. If I squat they will blow. haha. Also is a little bit of a hassle to pull them on. hahahahaha But I love you and appreciate everything you are doing to make this Christmas special for me too! I love you soooo much.

Hola Familia!
Well here it is the week of Christmas and things are going very well here in Wauchula. We are having fun, seeing little miracles, and growing lots. But might I first say that I love all the emails and letters you guys send. They are awesome and they really help to change a day from bad to good or from good to great when I don’t have the strength to do so myself. haha I am soo excited for this Christmas. It just is coming very slowly probably because I am soo excited for it. I can’t wait to talk and see you all and maybe laugh a ton and who knows what else. I do really hope that you all still have an awesome Christmas and that things go very well. Christmas on Sunday should be really cool too. We either are going to have a ton of people in church or none at all haha. But I thought I would let you know that we hit 96 people in church last week which was 4 off from our goal of 100. So we have high hopes and strong desires to work super hard this week. This last week was something kind of like a window of heaven opening and all my little hearts desires coming true. haha. Maybe its kinda Heavenly Fathers Christmas present for me. hahaha. But I got to do some very cool things which I have been wanting to do for a long time. To start off, lately I have really been wanting to service for some reason we never get the chance to do any kind of service out here. Meanwhile the English elders and Spanish sisters over in Seabring got to demolish a house in whatever way they could manage to do it. They ran through walls took sludge hammers to doors and punched everything in their way. SO of course having always wanted to do that and not being perfect I became slightly jealous and desired to have our own service to do. Well I never voiced it aloud like I should have but apparently the lord knew the desires of my heart because we had 4 opportunities to serve. The first was to paint a room for the Deleon family. (dads nonmember and their son just finally said he wants to get baptized) SO we painted and I got to do the baseboard and trim which is rather tricky at times hahaa but it was way fun and we all just talked and had a good time while doin a little service. Second we got to help Marcelina make 15 dozens of tamales. She doesn’t have very much money so in order to get money to buy gifts and make Christmas for the kids she decided to make about 100 dozens of tamales and then sell them for 10 dollars each. So we asked if we could help and then her daughter (Epi who is not a member) said we had better help them. haha So we get going and about two hours later there are 15 dozens done and meanwhile we had an awesome talk with Epi about the gospel in which many things were cleared up. 85 more to go and I barely made a dent in the HUGE pot of dough (I was the one who pressed all the dough into the husks) haha. Then the next day we come back to help a little more but this time another dream came true when Marcelina lifts these two huge chunks of meat onto the table, the two hind quarters of a pig. Then she hands us a knife and says go ta town. hahahaha Well I know it sounds gruesome but that’s was a ton of fun. The skin was still on and the fat was everywhere and the meat was still deep red and I was just going to town on this thing. The only sad part is I only got a picture when I was nearly done so my chunk looks rather small. haha I don’t know why that was a dream come true but it was. Then for the fourth we got to help the Deleon family again by putting up the new blinds in this newly painted room. Quite a hassle because the polls weren’t long enough so we jimmy rigged it and after a couple extra holes in the new walls it looked good. hahaha then afterwards they took us to this guy’s birthday party for some reason but it was cool because he happens to be the son of one of our investigators and he seemed to like us because he told us to come back some time. By the way if we got this guy or his dad baptized we would be able to pretty much baptize all of Zolfo because it is seriously his family that takes it all up. Ha-ha Then on top of all this we set up a soccer game on Saturday instead of going to frizbee. This way we are with our investigators and our members and we are saving miles. SO a win win win. Oh and its soccer you really can’t get much better. But wait.... it did. Chito who is a member that we have been working a lot with because he just got the Melchizedek priesthood, gave me a soccer jersey that didn’t fit him anymore. It’s a firefly and it’s blue with black stripes and just looks and feels awesome. So that amped up the game not to mention we had a Christmas branch party on Friday night, and Hermano Abrego made a ton of horchata but showed up late so he gave it to us so that we would have something good to drink during the game. Well the game was awesome and I scored twice but we got kicked off the public field (most likely because we were mexicans) so we went to the church and played dodge ball. Also way fun. Afterwards though there was still a ton of horchata (by the way I love horchata and have wanted some for a very long time but haven’t had the money to purchase it so another desire of my heart answered) So we took it all home and well we had about 10 pitchers full in our refrigerator. hahaha over abundance. Then Chito called us over to come and eat some barbeque that night and to top all these great little blessings President Martinez gave us a bag of ties (he is very wealthy and they were very nice, well most of them were) and told us to take whatever we wanted. Well I took like 4 or five awesome ones and elder Clark took the other good ones and then that night I traded him two ties for one of his very nice ties that came with cuff links. It’s this light green and blue shiny paisley tie that is super awesome. Oh and we had 19 lessons this week which is 1 away from 20 which so far has never been done here in a long time. Really this Christmas time is just awesome and we are seeing soo many little and beautiful blessings in our lives. I would write more but I am out of time and I am once again sorry to Cassie because it is your turn and I have now put it off two weeks when you have always written me. But I promise I won’t forget and I will write you soon. I love you guys so much and hope everything is going well. Merry Christmas and know that I have a testimony that Jesus Christ lives and that He was born into this world to save all of us individually and personally. He is the perfect example and if we ever want to be happy or happier we just have to try to be more like Him. He is our heavenly brother and the love that He has for each and everyone of us is divine and eternal. Because of Him we have hope to know that we can always be forgiven and we can always become something better. I give my witness that He is always with us and that He carries us when we can not go on any longer. I know that He is my Savior and redeemer and that because of Him everything will be fair in this life and in the life to come. I love Jesus Christ so much and I can’t wait for the day when I can sit and talk with Him and tell Him how grateful I am for what He did. I know this Christmas will be special. I don’t think I will ever forget it. I love you all so much and hope that everything is smooth sailing. Good luck with finals and little girls I love you sooooo much more than you guys know, and Mom and Dad I will always love and respect you forever, and Chelsey and Cassie and Clay I miss you all a ton and wish that I could be there to live up the memories and be the dorks we all know we are, You all are always in my prayers and I cant wait to talk to you on Sunday. If you think you need to talk to me think of how much I need to talk to you. hahahaha
LOVE ELDER OLIVER
PS Clay I don’t know what I weigh right now because no one has scales. but I will find it out soon. Meanwhile voy a estar en pos de excelencia!

December 5

Alrighty mctighty I be here once again ta babble about them going ons here in da mishun. Many of dem tings arrr swell an dandy an beuiful. haha Well it’s been a whole week since last I wrote and let me tell ya things are awesome. As always though the business needs to be taken care of. Thank you for saving my pictures please do so when I send them. Everyone of them. haha Also thank you for remembering my patriarachle blessing. I really need it out here. I can’t believe I forgot it. haha Alright now as for you all. WOW sounds like you guys are soooo busy! By the way I must give a rousing HOLLA HOLLA for my big ol birthday babe MMMMMMIIIIIIIISSSSSSS CAAAAAARRRRRRLLLLLEEEE HAAAPPPPYY BBIIRRTTHHDDAAYY!!!!!!! I was so excited to hear that you guys had so much fun and that dinner was great and that now you are old enough to babysit. I always knew you would be a very popular babysitter. Also good to hear that the bleach is still coming out strong in our family. Crazy bunch. haha Also just so everyone knows Chelsey is getting the personal letter this week and then the order follows I guess haha. Just as always it is super cool to hear that everything is still awesome and going swell. Cassie good to hear winter formal was bomb. make sure every minute of senior year is awesome! Clay sounds like you have become a workaholic. Always knew you would be. haha Keep making and saving that money for the most precious thing money can buy which is your mission. Carlee Cami and Chloe keep on truckin and having tons of fun and doing crazy things and being silly. Then after tell me about all the silly things you did. hahaha.

Well here’s the low down for the week. Transfers came and went and nobody changed which means most likely I will be here for a very long long time. But as for the miracles and such here they come. This week we had our two baptisms named Gerardo and Maria who are 11 and 9 and they seriously are the coolest most gentle and humble kids I have ever seen. They make me soo happy and I just love to visit them and teach them. Pure would be a good word. Their baptism went amazingly also because they had tons of people show up for it. Many people we have talked to before. But the best part was when I got to baptize Maria. She was soo smiley and happy and when we entered the water you could seriously just feel something different. When she came up I just had these feelings of hope. I just know this is something that she will remember forever and I will too. Not to mention when Elder Clark baptized Gerardo, he came up out of the water so happy he was laughing! Like laughter but not in an irreverent way just laughter from pure happiness. It sent chills down my spine haha. I wish everyone in the world was just like them. They are the children our Heavenly Father wants us to become like. Not to mention after the confirmations their mom said she wanted to get baptized too. So we might just have another here in a couple weeks. haha
As for the guy we met in the store. Ramon is doing awesome. He invites us over everyday and is almost angry when we can’t make it due to our packed schedules. Haha he loves joking with us and he listens intently to every lesson. The only problem is he can’t set a baptismal date for some unknown reason. We told him to pray about it and have a date for us by the next time we come so we will see if he figures it out. Also I have to tell you guys that the whole inactive side of the Juarez family is now actively participating in our family nights. It’s just the start. Not to mention we are working very hard with all of them individually. The miracle with them is that one of the families (we call it Liz's Family) is really starting to change. They way it happened is this. They have this boy named Oscar. Oscar is a little nugget. He is nine and he reminds me exactly of clay when he was younger, just by the way he acts. He refused to be baptized though for a long time just because he kinda likes to be a punk. So the first night I met him I decided to put all of my training with clay as a nugget to use. We became pretty much best friends instantly. We built ramps for his cars and we drew pictures of skulls and fire on it and deemed the name ramp of destruction worthy. haha sound like clay? Well this doesn’t seem like missionary work. but now every time he sees me he wants to talk to me and we imagine crazy things and talk about how we will make the ramp better. Well because we are great friends now he listens when I talk to him and he likes to do whatever I am doing. So when I talk about prophets he asks me to help him find one and then I tell him the story. Well this last week we were there I talked about baptism and he finally said he wanted to do it. His mom started crying and this Sunday they were all at church including their nonmember father. His name is Jose Deleon and he has told us he would get baptized he is just waiting for the right time and he is a little more not so easy to just discuss things with. But alas he was there at church and it was awesome to see them all. Then for the last little miracle this week... We were out and about when we decided to stop by this investigator house named the family Olmos. Well they were outside their house talking to another family so we park the car and walk over to them. Ends up being an awesome conversation and we find out that the family of the family Olmos is related to a family in our ward who happens to be in the hospital because their dad got in a car crash. Just little things and awesome testimony builders. haha
Well I just want to let you guys know how much I love you. You are all the best and I really just miss you tons. Make sure you are always being good and staying close. You are the best family in the whole MUHAHAHAltion
LOVE ELDER OLIVER

November 28th

This must be at a zone conference--but doesn't Chantz look great!! I also thought I would share this video he sent of his iniation into the Wachula area. I think he held it together pretty well considering he doesn't like really hot spicy things! (still trying to get it to load!!)

Hola familia!
Time has once again flown by with the quickness of ten gazelle and here I am to tell you that it has once again been filled by miracles, hardships and happiness. What else would a mission be without those things? haha So first to start off I think I will give the low down on The Day of Thanks. Sounds like you guys had an awesome time and that it was tons of fun! I love hearing all the stories and knowing who made what and how the pumpkin crisp turned out alright. haha I must say I thought a lot about you guys and what you were probably doing as I was having my own thanksgivings with other people. Well let me start by saying that I was WELL taken care of.
To start our thanksgiving wonder we woke up and headed out to play ultimate frisbee in Seabring because president gave us the ok to do so on thanksgiving. It was tons of fun and we happened to win 2 out of 3 and there was lots of cool plays made and we really just had quite the time. Then after that we went and caught up with the other missionaries and played football with their bishop and some less actives. That also was super fun. I made two interceptions and the last one happened to be one that I ran back for the winning touch down. It was a lot of luck and a good team but it made for a very interesting game. haha Then it was over to the Todds house who is a white family in our Spanish branch because the father speaks Spanish due to the mission he served. We showered there and had a great big ol traditional feast. I weighed 171 before with sweaty gym clothes and shoes on and after 177 with church clothes on haha.
Then after them we ate again with the Juarez family (the active side) and that was delicious too and then we went over to Marceline’s where we drove up just in time to catch her dancing. (she is about 65-70) and man is she goin to town hahaha just jivin and such and I happened to get it on film because the music was so loud and she was in a little trance so we got pretty up close and she had no idea what was going on. hahaha We then spent the rest of the night talking with her and her nonmember daughter who is kinda tough but I made friends with her and we are excited to see if we can get her to church. But we also took some dancing lessons from Marceline and I also filmed myself trying to jive mexican style. haha so be prepped for what will be viewed when you get the next card. Then on Friday we had another thanksgiving meal that was probably the best one at the inactive Juarez house. It was delicious and we just had a good time talking to all of them.
But the miracle came this week after the Juarez house. we went to Wal-Mart to get some more milk and of course protein and as I am squatin and looking at the different types and such a guy walks up to us and starts speaking in Spanish. he asks if we are the Mormon missionaries to which we say of course and then he tells us that he had been learning about our church in new jersey like 3 months ago and then he came to Florida and has been trying to find us ever since. Of course we offer to start teaching him again and he gladly obliges. We went over that night and had an awesome lesson with him and he said he would get baptized but he just wants to know a little more before he does. Then we visited him again on Saturday and invited him to church because he said he wanted to go. Well at our visit he tells us that he has to work on Sunday because he doesn’t have any money. Well I felt prompted at this time to ask him to show his faith by coming to church. but of course I get a little nervous and I don’t get it out the first time and this causes quite the awkward moment because now I am raging war inside. I really am still learning how to be swift with the whisperings of the spirit. But anyways I came up with another way to get it out and I end up asking him after reading Alma 32 20 and 21 "so will you show your faith by coming to church tomorrow instead of going to work?" He looks at me and just is puzzled but then he comes to and says. "Yea yea I will I should not have put things like money and worldly things before god thanks for helping me see that" IN all honesty that’s what he says! (all of this is in Spanish.) I felt soooooooooooooooooooooooo relieved and the next day there he was in church wearing a suit and talking and making friends with everyone and participating in classes because he went to all three hours and even attended the baptismal service afterwards. (sisters had a baptism) WOW such a cool experience and it just makes me want to do it all over again. He then called us today to ask us if we could come over. haha HE IS SOO COOL. He even knows a lot about working out. He likes talking to me about fitness stuff because he caught us while we were looking at protein. So he always gives me hints on how to get big and stuff haha Like after the baptism while we were eating he kept saying "You need another plate if you’re gonna get any bigger." haha Well Also at the baptismal service I was again prompted by the Holy Ghost to talk to this kid named OLIVER of course. He by the way is the brother of the girl who got baptized and last week his mom got baptized. So now he is the only one not baptized and we are close because he is a skater and we kinda just get along well. Well as we were sittin there waiting for the service to start and I end up finding out that he does not want to be baptized because he was scared that he couldn’t stay perfect after the baptism. Well I of course explained to him that that is actually the whole point of baptism is just to say that we will be followers of Christ and that every time we mess up we will repent and that we are actually suppose to mess up so that we can grow. He said he felt a lot different after that and that it didn’t seem like such a difficult thing anymore but I wish I could have talked to him a little more. Anyways it was cool and I am really hopeful for him.
However I do have to relate some sad things to you guys. First off our investigator nelson who was progressing began to drink and he was drinking so badly that his girlfriend kicked him out and now we can’t find him. The last phone call went like this "Hey nelson how’s is it going?"
"oh hey ESTOY BIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNN BOOOOORRRAAACCCHHHHOO!"
Yep in other words I am super drunk. SO we are worried about him and we have no idea what’s going on with him so keep this guy in your prayers. Also we had one of our members this week get in a car crash and is was only a one-car crash. He is so badly damaged and is in the hospital still after a week and he might be getting worse. SO pray for him too. His name is Cruz Herrera.
Asides from all this though things are awesome and we are doing great. We have two baptisms this weekend and we hope for a couple more soon. I am soo grateful to be out here and I really do love this area. IT is awesome. I love you all and miss you so very much. Thank you for always writing and making sure I get to hear what’s going on. You are the best Family in the Whole TUNAALTION. (made of fish)
LOVE ELDER OLIVER