April 9, 2012

Hola!
Well this has been quite the last week. We had many experiences and opportunities that I really think have put a new perspective in my eyes as a missionary. Well to start with is business of course. Madre tu eres lo mas amorosa persona que conozco. No te precupes de los discos que me dio. Esta bien todo y no hay una problema mas. Really I am just grateful for the discs in the first place. Plus they are working fine now, I just had to learn how to jiggle the disc in right. Trust me it plays great and I am getting the workout of a lifetime! I love you and your concern for me it is quite the sign of a wonderful mother.

Well as for some of the going- ons here, We did just get transfers and I am staying again. I will probably finish about 9 months here in Wauchula because not only am I staying but I also am getting a new companion. Elder Wedell is his name. He is a little bit of a hard elder to be with is what everyone says but I have always liked Elder Wedell and I am sure we will have a great and fantastic transfer if not two. But the sad part is that Elder Berry is leaving. I can now say that I really will miss the guy. We were becoming such close friends that there was a few times that we would say the exact same things at the exact same time or react in the exact same way. For ex. we were reading an email he got once and we both leaned back and said "what?!? No Way..... then we both looked at each other and laughed and couldn’t stop laughing because it was like we were ha ha haing at the exact same time and it really was quite embarrassing! haha So he will be dearly missed as he goes to Fort Meyers to be a zone leader. Meanwhile I did just get called to be the district leader here which is cool.
Now as for you guys I am soo happy that Easter was great. For me it was like I have never before experienced it. I was thinking so much of the Savior and all that He did that I was more happy and more in tune to the Spirit than I ever have been before. We tried to do a couple things to just make us think more about Him some of those being listening to talks or carrying our favorite picture of the Savior in our pockets. It actually really helped. My favorite picture is " I AM" by Simon Dewey that I cut out of my calendar haha. It of course was the picture for my favorite month.. March hahaha So sounds like the activities were tons of fun and that you guys are really getting busy. By the way to break a little secret I had I also have been practicing the piano because we found a keyboard in our apartment. I am now able to play two handed for most of the hymns. well we have a little booklet that has hymns done easy or something so its not too complicated. But asides from that I hope all keeps going up! I am so happy you guys all got to see Chelsey. It makes such a difference and makes it a lot more important to see your family members when they are usually not there. Its like a relief and just makes the day worth it haha. I get to feel that way out here a lot. We do have family out here and sometimes going too long without visiting someone really makes you ache for them. haha

I do have quite the stores for you this week. First off though we did have a very low number week. It was very difficult because we had about 4 days out of work. We had music practice Monday and Tuesday then Wednesday we had dm and our splits was gone because the branch asked us to participate in a youth activity. Then Friday we went to a baseball game for a less active family in the ward and spent some time with them. But here’s the cool parts of the week. On Saturday we get up and get our transfer calls then after many phone calls from other missionaries we head out to frisbee where we had 10 on 10 which is the largest it has ever been. Then we get back and we were asked to participate in the primary easter activity so that was like 3 hours setting up and cleaning up and all, then here’s the really interesting part. We had been asked by an investigator named Mitch Kuck to go see what is called "The Story of Noah" Its kinda like an Easter Pagent kinda thing but its put on by a different church and instead of Christ during Easter they choose Noah. Anyways its suppose to be this huge deal and the tickets cost 20 bucks each so we were pretty excited to go. Plus it was such a good way to spend time with this investigator who is having a rough patch in his life. Oh yea and he took us out to eat at Giovanni's an italian restaurant. Well to skip a lot the play starts and its pretty intense. Like a great set! There are camels and all sorts of cool animals and they have real wooden carts and everything. Well to depict the wickedness back in the day they have some pretty graphic and intense moments. Not to mention like a lot of chastity comments like slaves being sold as "fresh meat" kinda deal. Oh yea and there is this scene where this really buff guy lifts a kid up by his neck and runs him through with a sword. So in other words very graphic. haha especially for a play where little kids are watching. Not to mention the music for the background is like Christian rock where these pubescent boys are wailing about Jesus. Yea just very very different from the Easter Pagent. haha Anyways its actually pretty good and entertaining until the end--like all the way to the last scene. Well the last scene is called the end of all times. So of course they bring out the white, red, black, and pale horse stuff and start showing like death stuff and seriously like freaking us out. Then all of a sudden out comes the boyish christian band music and Who else but black Jesus comes riding out on this beautiful horse at which the whole stands start stomping the stands and clapping and screaming! Yea so you got the drum beat, sparks going all over, black Jesus flying across the stage on his stallion sword in hand, wailing boy voices singing about Jesus, some other Jesus dancing some form of a modern dance with zombies praising him and moving with him, girls with flags dressed in white, and about 400 people shouting praise Jesus and screaming all kinds of other things. Elder berry and I were utterly bewildered. I seriously felt like I was participating in idol worship from the olden days. It was all emotion and no spirit. Well after a long while of this entourage the thing finally closes and the pastor of this church who was Noah runs out to the middle of the stage and gets on the mic. " Well ladies and gentlemen lets here it for Jesus!" "YEAA :ASLKHFPOE!!!!" Thank you so much for coming out tonight...... blah blah blah....... so we are sending out angels among you with buckets (at which about 40 people done up as angels run out throughout the crowd) Not gonna beat around the bush these buckets are for money. If you feel so inspired to through some in we would really appreciate it. (okay these angels are like funneling the stairs and ways to get out so you have to pass by them) Not only that but if you feel so inspired that tonight you need Jesus we are going to be able to help you do that TONIGHT right behind these doors just come up this hill here after I am done. We even are doing free baptisms! right over there in that pool. We already had a bunch of people do it last week so just come over if you feel so inspired. Not to mention we have clothes and towels and anything else you will need. Everyone else have a great night! JESUS BLESS! well needless to say we hustled our way out and I almost donated because I have been listening to a lot of talks lately and I was thinking what would the apostles and prophets do. then I realized i had to pay tithing the next day so i didn’t and i really kinda felt bad about it. The Lord would have. Anyways I learned only one thing from this experience and that is how to explain the Holy Ghost. It IS NOT emotions like the kind you get listening to an intense song rather it is a sweet and tender quite voice that touches your heart with peace and happiness in a most respectful and beautiful way. I was soo sickened by this performance. It really was well done but the sickening part is how lost everyone is. They don’t even realize that they are the ones outside the boat when the doors are closing! ahhhh I just almost lost it! I just feel so much more of a need now to go out and teach people how to feel the Holy Ghost. What a missing piece of the puzzle. I promised to push myself harder than ever to save those people from the "flood" that is coming.
Also we got to celebrate Easter with the Juarez family and they ended up surprise attacking us with a shaving cream fight in the which everyone was covered in shaving cream. Good thing I had chosen to wear bad clothes. hahaha. I took pics so I will try to get them to you. I just really hope you guys know that this was the most special week in the history of time as it is the very time to remember the greatest accomplishment ever made. I love my Savior Jesus Christ and I promise to get as many of his children as I can back to him. I love you all and miss you much but there is just too much work to do. SO Back to work!
LOVE ELDER OLIVER

March 5, 2012
Lai Lai Lai Lai Li Lai Lai! HOLA Familia!
Well I thought this week I might explain some of the pictures and videos considering you may not understand why they were taken and how they work unless you are out here. I realize that some of them might actually have been frightening. hahahaha To start off, Sister Beck is a new sister missionary. She actually is very cool and I really like her a lot for as much as an elder can think of a sister. We the elders find lots of joy and comfort in messing around with the sister missionaries with every opportunity we get. This one was particularly a good time to mess with her considering she had just got to the mission field and not to mention she is serving with Vogelsburg so we thought we would give her a little love. haha Also yes that is a bucket of gel and me and Elder Spendlove had quite the wonderful time but it like fried our heads. Also Thank you for all the great comments about the movie they always make a guy feel good. haha We have a couple others but they are on my hardrive because my camera couldn’t film them at the time. I think there is also a picture where I am like dancing with a very painful face on. We had been doing ballet poses at Monica’s for Elder Clark’s last pics with them and when I went to ballet position my leg cramped up soooo bad that I yelped and everyone started busted up laughing. It actually was a very funny/embarrassing moment in my life. So if you have anymore concerns or worries please ask! hahahaa

As for me and my week, thing were alright this week. Our number of lessons this week shot way low because we were so busy with so many other things. This week we had pday so that takes up most of the day then we had zldc ( a conference for district leaders and zone leaders because Elder Berry is district leader) followed by singing practice for 2 and a half hours and then we had to drive 1 hour and a half home. so Wednesday was gone, then Thursday we had district meeting in Sebring so like 3/4 of our day was gone, then Friday was weekly planning in the which much had to be planned out and talked about, then Saturday was frisbee and then Elder Berry had a baptism in Apollo beach so we went out there for the rest of the day only to come back and have Elder Clark, Elder Parkinson and Elder Clark’s companion Elder Nelson at our house for the night because Jose was getting baptized on Sunday. Sunday is a day where we drive pretty far to spend some time with some recent converts and their nonmember mom and less active dad not to mention they live with another family who is also investigating so we spend a good amount of time there. Oh yea and we had to get Jose interviewed by the zone leaders. OH my it was quite the busy week and therefore not so many lessons were had. But we did finally have the baptism of Jose who has investigated the church for 13 years and his son who is 8 and they had their baby blessing all in the same day. Well Jose is a brother in law to the Juarez inactive side so guess what?! Every member of the entire Juarez inactive family was at church! Every one of them! It was awesome and they were all so happy and all their non member spouses were there and they had a good time! The only bad part is that all the active side did not come... the grand poopa of all the Juarez family is bleeding internally at 90 years old and went in on Sunday to be operated on. So everyone was at the hospital leaving us with about 60 people at church instead of the about 120 we could've had. But that’s ok and what really is important is that Buela (abuela) is ok and recovers. She is the nicest most oldest mexican I have ever met and I love her a lot. She is the epitome of genuine and humble. I really hope she is ok. We will see how the operation goes. But the baptism was awesome and super spiritual. I have so much faith in the gospel and how it can take the most wicked men and make them into spiritual warriors of God. I also had a very special tender mercy this week. During sacrament meeting which was fast and testimony meeting I was sitting there stressing about the baptism and things that needed to be done and how we were going to do everything, this is already after I bore my testimony, so its not that kind of stress, And there I was praying in my heart that Heavenly Father would help me calm down and find a way to get everything done when all of a sudden a little girl walks up to the stand. Well it was Maria the girl who I just barely baptized. She gets up there probably being the newest member of the whole branch and she bears the sweetest tender testimony I have ever heard. It filled my heart with so much peace and happiness that I really just began to cry. It was like a little ray of light telling me that I was doing ok and that I have already made a difference. I really felt a divine love letting me know that He is there. I testify to you that He is there and that He loves each and every one of us and that He is proud of what we have done in our lives. We are His sons and daughters and this is His gospel restored by a prophet Joseph Smith. The keys of the kingdom are here on this earth and all we have to do is grab a hold of them never to let go again. I Just love being out here. I love my mission it is an inspiring motivational learning and growing experience that will never be forgotten. I despise how fast time is flying by. It fills me with urgency to do everything I can! I love you guys and miss you tons you really are a light in the dark to me in ways that you don’t even know. You guys are my eternal and celestial family that I would not trade for all the world!
LOVE, ELDER OLIVER

February 27, 2012

(sorry a little late--just got new pictures!)

Hola Familia!
Well I have really got to admit that this week has been a little bit of a hard one. We have still found success but I think it could easily be named the trial of our faith. hahaha Well transfers came and went and we are staying the same! Pretty cool and we are both excited to continue forward. However Elder Spendlove is now leaving and a new elder is coming in. Kinda sad but it’s also good because I think he was reaching the wire with his companion Elder Sookhan (from Trinidad). Just culture differences and what not. haha Also Elder Berry just got made the district leader so now we will have to do tons of splits. I actually like splits most of the time so I am pretty excited for that. Well for you guys it sounds like things are going great! It’s awesome to hear about all the adventures and what you guys did and are doing. I love to know and it makes me feel a lot better and closer to home. I also wanted to say that I am so grateful to have a family like you guys.

Dad thank you for always writing me such great letters you inspire me and make me feel like a success. I love how interested you always are in the things that I am always interested in. It means so much. Also I was thinking about how you were feeling and I have come to think about the movie Hook a lot. I feel like that’s kinda our movie and It always reminds me that I want to be just like you when I grow up. However there is something that I was thinking about this last week and it was the line from the movie that says, "Death would be the ultimate adventure." How deeply inspired that line is. I was thinking of how no matter how old I get I always want to live for the adventure but then I realized what adventure am I talking about? The more I thought the more I realized that the gospel is my adventure! Every day we get to live should somehow be spent in the service of our God. And then the line about death as we realize it really would be the greatest adventure as we embark on the final voyage to everlasting life and eternal exaltation having given our all while here on this earth. There would be chills running around in our bodies as we smoothly sail into the resurrection and the judgment knowing that this is not the end but rather the beginning of an INFINITE and ETERNAL progression. I love thinking about that and it drives my heart and desires to serve the very best I can. Mom I also have been thinking about you this week. I think back on things that happened and how they happened and how I acted and how everyone else acted and how you always had SO much to do yet you ALWAYS got it done.
Now for this week, well we went from 6 baptisms to 1. I have never seen so much adversity and I am not gonna lie I just don’t think we were ready for it. We had Monica and her divorce problems, the two kids Bladamir and Jennifer with their lack of permission from their parents, Mitch kuck with his legal issues, and then the day we go to give Elena a baptismal interview she ends up telling us she is leaving to Michigan to live with her boyfriend in a week! In other words I can’t be baptized. It was so bizarre and so fast that it just blew up in our faces. We have just been trying very hard to recuperate, to get back up and to keep going. The only baptism that is going to go through hopefully is Jose Deleon's and the cool part is that he is getting baptized with his son Oscar who is 8 and his wife just had a baby who is going to be blessed on the same day. So that’s pretty cool and exciting. Also we did have a lot of the Juarez family show up on Sunday. A couple of them were not there but quite a good amount were. The hard part to that is that Weo who we had talked to about repentance and had talked to president got freaked out and flew out of the building after sacrament meeting. I guess we will just have to get him some other time. haha Then this week I also got to go on splits with Pres Martinez who is an awesome scholar of the doctrine to go and talk to Victor Juarez who is probably the most likely to never change. Let’s just say we left and Victor was almost like wiggin out trying to keep the conversation going so that we wouldn’t leave. It was pretty comical haha not gonna lie. Then I also had the opportunity to show some of my real colors. We had picked up Chewy (Jesus is his real name) because he had wanted to talk to us about making a phone call to pres and he needed our help. Anyways we go to KFC to pick up some food for his family because their electricity went off. Well we get there and he orders like twenty dollars worth of food. Then of course his wallet is empty and he has no money. (yea the old wallet trick) haha well that’s what I am thinking. But I realized even IF he is pulling this on me why can’t I pay it? They feed us all the time as missionaries and for this ONE time I can’t pay for some chicken? WOW I had a serious growing moment in like 20 seconds worth of time. haha I paid for the chicken and refused to take the money they offered to pay me back with. I felt soo good and tingly inside. The Lord had once again given me an opportunity to show some love. haha Now here is the miracle. MUAHAHAHA!!! Well we had some free time on Saturday because frisbee got over early and Elder Berry and I both are blowing out of our suits. haha So We head out to some little thrift stores that are close to our house. Well let me tell ya WE WERE BLESSED! We didn’t have much success at the first store but at the second store Elder Berry found a beautiful suit (with my drycleaner eye I put it at about a 1500 dollar suit) it’s from London and is made sooo well. We got it for 2 dollars. It even fits Elder Berry perfectly! It is brown with pinstripes and really can’t explain more than it is perfect for him. Well how is this my blessing? Right next to the suits is this sign that says ties 5 for a dollar. OH BABY. The only bad part is that there is like a billion ties but in this rusty ol box. Well I start into the box and to my amazement every tie in the box is from Italy and is super nice and they are all skinny ties! I have never seen such a great find! I walked out with 22 new ties for 4 dollars and 50 cents. And trust me these ties are worth a lot. The only bad part is that now I need to press them out. haha Oh man it feels soo good to be blessed. To finish it all off I want to share something that I learned this week. I was reading in D and C in a section around 76 the scripture is on the right side of the page in the right column but I can’t remember the number haha. Anyways it says gird up your loins and be faithful and ye shall overcome all things. Now for me I kinda put it into normal day words and I got the following. Put your pants on, be a man and be faithful and I will be able to do all things. I love this scripture now. I have just decided this week that no matter what happens I will always be a man and I will make sure my pants are always on and that I am the one in control under the direction of Heavenly Father that is. I just think sometimes it really is just simple. BE A MAN. Make your own decision, just be faithful and we will come off conqueror.
I love you guys and miss you soo much! I hope you have an awesome inspiring week fill with many adventures!
LOVE, ELDER OLIVER

February 20, 2012

Well my wonderful awesome loving magnificent familia that I love so very much I am pleased to say that this week is what one might call Pure AWESOME. hahahaa First though I must thank you for all the wonderful letters and for telling me what is going on in your lives and how everything is going. I love hearing about it and I really miss you guys dearly. ! I am so happy to hear that all of you are doing things and staying very busy. The lord has always warned us to not be idlers but to be anxiously engaged in a good cause. I find that that still applies even out here in the mission. We always have to be moving, doing, changing, growing or we will have wasted our precious time here in this life and especially on the mission. I love growing and I love to change and learn. It is my passion right now. I try to think of how much can I change or be changed by the end of my mission and then I set out to accomplish the dreams. It is awesome to see how much you get blessed when your heart is sincere and you aim for something higher than you thought you could attain. I love this gospel soo much and I love my heavenly father and his son Jesus Christ. The reason I feel so strongly about this is because of the things that happened this week.

Now as for my week. Like I said before it was straight up and down awesome. We even had a couple of very hard things happen but they just cant keep a guy down when the blessings keep pulling a guy up. SO to start. MONDAY... We had an awesome pday and middle of pday I realized what we were going to do for family night with the Juarez family, less active side. We have been doing something known as scripture of the night for a while now with investigators and I cant believe how well it works! EVERYONE is reading their scriptures and they are just loving them and asking for more! It is a miracle and it touches me every time someone says "I feel like they are talking to me!" We are asking everyone to join and they all do and because we only send out like a verse or two its not a hard read or anything. 30 seconds later people are loving the scriptures. So we decided to get the Juarez family to do it, but remember these people are still pretty hard hearted. So we make it a competition and now everyone is in. I can not tell you how much it has changed them in only one week! they are sooooo competitive that now they all carry around their Book of Mormons and they have told us they consider leaving other things behind to bring it. hahaha not to mention half the people that participate are not even members who are now reading it. Oh yea not to mention sometimes when they accidentally leave the book in their room and they are on the computer they go to our website and read from there. It has just been awesome and inspiring. haha Then on top of that Monday night we receive a miracle phone call. A guy by the name of Mitch Kuck calls us and says he wants to be baptized and will do anything he has to to do it as soon as possible! Miracle I think so. So now we are at 6 baptismal dates set! Well of course because we are doing so good things kinda have to fall apart a little. Well 4 dates got pushed back this week. One because a divorcement didn’t go through, the other 2 because the kids hadn’t told their dad that they were going to be baptized, and the last because Jose Deleons wife is having her kid TODAY. haha c section... and the baptism will be too pressured if we do it this coming week. By the way we didn’t have 3 baptisms yesterday I had meant the end of THIS week. but anyways. So kinda a little sad but not to bad just push backs. They all still keep saying "yea this is something I am just ready for and really want to do." so we are still pretty pumped for them. But back to the miracle on the 32nd street entourage. Then I don’t know if I told you all this but I got chosen from the about 200 missionaries in this mission to sing in a special choir. I get to sing tenor and Guess what? the song we are singing is 68 pages long. yea 68. It goes from Christ’s baptism to his Resurrection in about an hour worth of time. So Wednesday at zone conference we got to stay there until about 6 at night practicing, in the which I was the only tenor present and I really have no musical background when it comes to reading notes, only to have to drive an hour and a half back home. So the whole day was gone. Yet here is the miracle... We still got twenty lessons this week. Oh wait here’s the best part. We got 8 member present lessons which is the most we have ever had, 8 less active, and 4 others followed by 6 dates set, 4 investigators in sacrament meeting, and three new investigators. Oh yea and we had 100 people in sacrament meeting because guess who all came? YEP ALMOST THE WHOLE JUAREZ INNACTIVE FAMILY. The only people that were not there were Amanda and Weo because they came to our church last week and because Amanda is not a member they go to her church every other week because Weo is a good guy who supports his wife and is showing her he cares. Oh and Oneida (one) ((oh-nay)) but here kids came. Oh and Victor. he is a whole other story. We actually went to pick him up and he wouldn’t even come out of his room to talk to us. Yet he almost won the scripture competition. sooo We are still working on him. WOO Sorry I got carried away but its just so awesome!!! Then we got to meet with Weo and Amanda this week and we had an awesome lesson and then afterwards when we were walking out to go Weo followed us and spilled some serious beans. Lets just say we left with him saying I can do this and I am gonna do this and you guys are right Thanks. All I can really say is the Lord super inspired us to ask just the right questions. It is so hard to see all this success and remember that it is by the Lords hand alone and that we are just the tools because really we get soooo excited and it just feels soo good! I want to think some of it was me But trust me when I say none of it was. The Lord has seen fit to pour out quite a few blessings upon us and I am forever in His debt to have even seen such blessings. OH not to mention one night this week we were stressing because we thought all our baptisms were this coming week and we needed to prepare quite a bit, but then all of a sudden no joke about 4 lessons cancel on us this one night I think it was Friday. Not like 4 hours worth of time but like our plan our back up plan and the two other plans in case everything fell through. Well we decide to pray and ask for the inspiration to know what to do. Well we both feel prompted to go to bowling green. at that moment we were in Zolfo which is the complete other side of our area, but we have been pretty good with our miles so we head out and we decide to visit Mindy Juarez. Well we pull up and her nonmember husband is outside. He runs in and tells her to come out but he comes out with her. By the way that has never ever happened before. So we just start talking and laughing and stuff and then all of a sudden out of no where her husband asks us why do we serve missions. OH BOY what a question. hahaha I love that one. So we both tell him why and bear testimony. Needless to say he kinda shrugged it off and asked a couple more questions and then goes inside. Well the miracle is that he came to church on Sunday... I love this mission.... He has never come to church ever. Yet there he was and he was all happy and smiling and it was great because the rest of the Juarez family was there to be like a support to each other. I just really cant even describe how happy I am and how grateful I am to be in this very blessed area. I also was just asked to be the one who baptizes Elena this next week which really makes you feel good. All I know is that my Heavenly Father loves me and that He cares so much for me. Sometimes I don’t know why but he does and I get to see it almost everyday. I love you guys and I miss you a lot. I cant wait to see you all again someday soon enough. You guys mean everything to me.
LOVE ELDER OLIVER

February 13, 2012

Buenas dias Familia!
I am so grateful for the letters that you guys sent this week they were awesome! I really love hearing about each one of you and about how you are doing. I get really excited every week to hear from you. So thank you so much for putting the time in to writing me even though its and every week thing. Transfers are coming in two weeks! sooo quickly does time fly! (yoda) But I really hope to stay here with Elder Berry. We are doing so great together and we are just enjoying every minute of it. We have reached the point where our jokes start to play off of one another and they make it that much funnier! haha Not to be prideful but we are loved by the people here and it just is such a blessing. So as for what seems to be going on with you guys that sounds awesome. Glad to hear that another week full of events has happened and that you guys are never stopping. I really like hearing about your experiences just as much as you like hearing about mine. Thank you mom and dad for being patient and examples to me. I really appreciate it and will always remember it.

As for what we are up to over here there is a lot going on. We had only 19 lessons this week but it’s ok because we had to have some very long lessons in order to prepare our three baptisms that we have planned for the end of this week. We are not going to let that stop us from getting 20 again but I prefer quality over quantity. haha So we are preparing Jose Deleon for baptism and he is super excited to do it! He keeps saying things like "yea I really want this it’s my time." and then Elena and Monica are also super pumped and read the scriptures every night and have awesome questions. They also just gave up tea and coffee because we got them some Gatorade powder. On top of that 3 of the Juarez families showed up to church on Sunday! Weo and Amanda, Raul (gran poopaw) and Ofelia, and Liz and Jose. Oh not to mention we just set another baptismal date with some of the kids who live with Monica for the middle of march, and Gerardo her son just got the priesthood and is going to the temple this Saturday with the young men. And We got some new investigators this week one of which is super positive and she is all ready to change and is coming to church this week! All in all things are just going awesome this week! We are so excited and the lord is blessing us soooo much. I really don’t have any reason to ever feel down. I LOVE being out here and being a part of this. I love seeing people change. I love this gospel and now I have an awesome companion who shares it with others very well with me. We haven’t had anything to crazy happen but I can just see the lords hand in all these things. I love you guys and I am sorry this is short today but we have to do some other things today because we have all our checks this week. I miss you and hope you guys are doing great! You’re the best family in the whole Huffandpuffaltion.
LOVE ELDER OLIVER

February 6, 2012

I think this picture is of the pig Chantz got to cut up--looks like he's enjoying it!

Hola Familia!
Here we are another week down and things are still awesome and wonderful and I am still having tons of fun and enjoying every minute of my mission. We had an awesome week, yes with twenty lessons again, and we got to see some small miracles happen this week. Thank you for all the comments about the pictures and videos. I have a TON more because the other card has a lot more on it now but I will send that when you send the other guy back. I will also try to send a few today. I am very glad that Cami enjoyed the present. I hope you know that I wear a hat just like that every morning as I study to keep me warm. It looks funny because I have my church clothes on and a silly hat but it kinda helps me focus and helps me think. Also I wanted to thank you guys for always caring so much. It means a lot that you wish the best for me and I understand your concern. I will love you forever for being the best parents a crazy guy like me could ask for.

Now for the week that I had and for the little miracles we got to see. This week started off awesome. We got to go on an exchange and Elder Spendlove came down here to Wauchula and Elder Berry went over to Sebring. We went from the end of pday to Wednesday morning at dm. We do this so as to save many a mile. But the exchange was way fun and everybody here in Wauchula loved Elder Spendlove. It was definitely an inspired exchange. We got five lessons on Tuesday and one on Monday night which was the family night. But because Elder Spendlove is Elder Spendlove the whole Juarez family was talking with us and tellin jokes and what not. Apparently he just had an ability to connect with them. haha Then luckily Elder Spendlove likes to work on cars because we head over to Jose Deleon’s house and there we find him locked out of his own house workin on his truck--waiting for his wife Liz to get home. hahahaha Well Elder Spendlove hits it off with him too because they both are super into auto hoopla. haha It was awesome and we just had some great lessons together. But I was definitely excited to get Elder Berry back. We are doing Super awesome! He is a ton of fun and we get along super well. Not to mention we teach very well together. Not to mention he understands and speaks Spanish extremely well so it’s like learning from the master Chifu of Spanish. haha But he doesn’t brag or nothing, he gives me my time to talk in lessons and helps me out a lot. Not to mention we could go all day talking in Spanish because he understands everything I say and I understand him. Needless to say it has been a full turn around of our first transfer. haha Heavenly father knows that I am a guy who needs a second chantz to get things right. We also this week have been sending Elena scriptures every night (Elena is an investigator who set a baptismal date but changed her mind on a number of different occasions) and now she has a super burning desire to read the book of Mormon. She has it all marked up and asked us for a highlighter and to send her more than one scripture a night! I have never seen so much change in one person. Not two Fridays ago she told us she wasn’t going to get baptized and that her baby was getting baptized in the Catholic Church. Wow miracles.... haha For another little miracle we had HERMANO JUAREZ el gran POOPAA de la Familia JUAREZ come to church this week! He came and totally enjoyed it and we hope to have him back next week. haha What a start. ON top of that we had a fantastic lesson with the Olmos family again and this time their daughter sat in and asked great questions and read along in the scriptures with us, and afterwards we left with like 5 tomales. hahaha We have to be careful otherwise a deathly experience could pass us again. haha This week we also had some sweet splits in the which I got to serve with a guy in our ward named Brother Todd. He is a returned missionary who speaks Spanish that he learned on his mission and then he got his records moved so he and his family could be in our branch. Pretty awesome, not to mention I learned a lot about being more bold and how to do it kindly. Sometimes we just get scared to ask people to make a commitment when we know they are trying to beat around the bush. We always get the "voy a tratar" "I am going to try." But hermano Todd persisted through and asked if he could either have a yes or a no. then he bore testimony and then asked again. When she said "voy a tratar" again he said then excuse us but we have to get going. haha A little bold but Powerful and hopefully that lady learns that the church isn’t just something that we kinda flow with. We either do or we do not. No wall sitters permitted. It is actually worse to be a wall sitter than on the other side. Just one more quick story. There we were walking down the street in the early morning to go to the spot where we get picked up to go to frisbee on Saturday morning, when all of a sudden a guy walks up and compliments my hat (the one that looks like cami's). He kinda came out of nowhere. But anyways it’s funny because before we can really say anything he goes off on gospel such. Like do you guys believe in God? To this we laugh on the inside thinking "you don’t even know who you are talking to." hahahaa (you must remember that we are in workout clothes with just name tags on) We casually reply Yes sir we believe in God we actually are missionaries for our church. His whole face changes in that instant, but he keeps up pretty well and continues to try and tell us we don’t know it but we are in the wrong path. One way he tries to come by it is asking "are you 100 % sure that you are in the right spot?" To this I look at him with firm but trying to look kind eyes and say "Yes sir we are a hundred percent sure" he then asks a few other questions and kinda comes back to the same question because apparently I didn’t look like I was too sure of myself when I said that. This time a little more firmly I state "Sir I am absolutely 100% sure that I am in the right church and that I have everything I need to make it back to live with god again." at this the man just kinda smirks and walks off. Kind of a weird experience but it reminded me that I need to look and appear to be 100% sure of what I am doing. We can’t just look like we are just 90% percent of the way in or even 99% We need to be and act and follow with 100% of everything we have to be a member of this church which is the only true church here on this earth. I give my testimony that I know that I am in the right path. I know where this path leads and I am a 100% sure that It will take me and you where we need to go. I love this gospel so much and I give my witness that it changes us in so many ways. The spirit enlarges our natural abilities and allows us to become what god would have us become. I give my witness of that as I get to see it happen everyday. I love you guys and I miss you lots. You will never know unless you serve a mission how much the letters and packages from home mean. What a blessing it is to have you guys. You are the BEST!

Love,

Elder Oliver

January 30, 2012

Buenas dias Mi familia grande que quiero mucho!
Well it has been quite the week and we have been blessed to make the goal of 20 lessons. We have seen many a changes and we are super excited for the things to come. I can promise you all that this is the greatest adventure ever! haha I just love serving and being out here and doing the work. It brings satisfaction on a level that not many can comprehend. What a blessing it is! haha Well To start off, thank you for all the wonderful and awesome emails that you guys wrote. Like I always say they help in more ways than you know especially because it’s hard for me to write you guys and such. But I do have a plan and I just have to put it into action so you guys can expect letters soon.

Mom and Dad how great that you got to go out and enjoy your anniversary. I really think that is something that doesn’t usually happen with many couples. I have got to see a lot of that lately and it’s funny how many times we as missionaries have had to give advice to couples who couldn’t seem to make it work. We are actually working with a couple right now. Vicki and Cesar and then the other is Weo and Amanda. Vicki and Cesar are way worse though than Weo and Amanda but they are prego and have a daughter together. It’s really quite sad. I am so happy that you guys have a great marriage and that it is one that has been sealed in the temple.
As for me this week like I said it went very well. We actually did get back up to 20 lessons a week but quite a few of the lessons we had this week were pretty rough. We had to go back and reteach the word of wisdom to a few of our members. Not to mention another discovery channel episode tried to explain how we are polygamists to our new members. haha It really has been quite the week. I also am now off the mass gainer that I have been taking for probably the past month. It came to me in a serious whippin that I should not be taking it anymore. Let me explain. So I take two shakes each day one in the morning and one at night. both with 2 percent milk and about 2-3 tablespoons of peanut butter. So each drink ranges in from about 800 to 1000 calories and about 160 carbs and about 65 grams of protein-- with all of the other necessary things in order to do some serious growing. hahaha well lets just say that these drinks make one feel very full. Most very full indeed. like after little mimis full. And I got to feel like that everyday for a month. haha Well on top of that I think Heavenly Father was like "oh you wanna gain weight eh? well here it comes!" haha We have been given so much food! Everywhere we go now they feed and feed and feed us. "Elder are you sure you don’t want anymore? Why are you so slow at eating? Eat up eat up. We made so much so you guys could eat as much as you could." Yea its love and that feels good but not when you are consistently full and then you have to somehow find room to squish all their food down and not to mention a lot of it. Really we did not get fed very much until the day I started mass gainer. Like it really is like a joke. Well I think Heavenly Father really wanted me to quit pretty bad though because I had an experience that would lead me to believe he really wanted it. There we were at the infamous OLMOS house. They are doing awesome and are starting to try to come to church kinda... but we know we are doing good because they are not members and they invited us to come and eat with them. So we come over and have a lesson and then they invite us in. now let me explain the background. Not two hours before I had pounded 3 beefy 5 layer burritos and I had drank the other half of the mass gainer I had not been able to finish that morning. Well I don’t really know what I was thinking but I thought I could just digest in two hours worth of time. The answer to that myth is no. I entered that house full to the brim. Not stuffed but definitely content. haha Well for dinner they decide to serve enchiladas which were delicious but she gives me four enchiladas and a heaping side of beans and rice. So I start, now you must know that missionaries have to learn talent with eating. We have to eat quick but well paced other wise you could probably kill yourself. hahaha jk but you will leave sick or with an upset investigator/member. So I make it through my first two enchiladas pretty quickly and then the third but by the fourth I was reaching stuffed beyond stuffed. Well I somehow get it down and start to look at the beans as they whisper "my little pretty you’ll never be able to eat us!" Well that of course gives me courage so I plunge my fork in them when all of a sudden two more enchiladas drop on my plate like an atomic bomb. "Eat up elder!" :()
Well I can honestly say my heart sank and I had no idea what to do. I started on the enchiladas hoping to at least finish the main part before I took on the heaping pile of side dishes. I get though but just barely.... It’s at this point that I start to go a little crazy and very quiet as my head starts to churn with thoughts of "How do I get out of here?" Well it came to me that I must suffer through these beans and rice. I decide it is time to pray because this is a crisis. This is a family who will be baptized hopefully and they have so much family that it would be like a whole new city in the church overnight, so they cant be offended but at the same time my stomach was about to just blow. It was to the point where everything tasted horrible. I just realized the only way I am getting through this is with his help. So I pray and promise to quit mass gainer for the time being if he will help me make it through this. Also you must know I am breathing very heavily. Well I don’t know how but bite by bite by bite the pile starts to disappear. I really think that the food was disappearing on its own because there was no way I could have done it. We finally make it through and guess what she offers us dessert! It’s at this point that I exclaim that we have another appt to which we are late to and as politely as I could I ask if we could take it with us. She says sure and off we go. me about on the edge of death due to overeating and my body trying to over process and elder berry who had not eaten that much before saying he was hurting from eating so much. Quite the experience and one to never forget. It didn’t even stop hurting until about lunch the next day!
Well for the better parts we are working with Monica and her daughter Elena who have baptismal dates and slowly but surely we are working out every doubt they have. Its funny because we leave and they are so excited to get baptized and then we come back and there is some doubt that has driven them into like a hole of despair so we have to dig them back out and make them excited again. Such is missionary work. We also finally got to get together with the Deleon family again and this time their friends who are part of the (drumroll) OLMOS family were there and we just talked and laughed and shared some awesome scriptures and then afterwards the OLMOS guy told us he would invite us over for some of his barbeque chicken some time. How cool is that? Not to mention we are doing awesome with the Juarez family. Slowly but surely they are changing in a lot of ways. It’s like teaching little kids how to love and show their love and what you do because you love someone. We have family night every Monday night and each time more and more are seriously paying attention and asking questions and saying better comments and not joking so much or they will just straight up say awesome and powerful things about the gospel. We are soo happy for them and are very excited to see where they go. Well really things are going awesome. Elder Berry and I Me are already having lots of fun and enjoying this second time we get to serve together. I love being out here I love what I am doing and I miss all you guys terribly so. Please keep writing even though I don’t. I really will try harder this week to get some out.

LOVE, ELDER OLIVER