October 22, 2012

Well Buenas!!

I am super happy to be writing you guys this week! It has been awesome and your letters have shown me that yours was too!! I loved all of them and yes I still miss you all dearly and think about you often and I have really been studying pictures because they help remind me of why I am here and why I do this. I am finding families like ours that will someday have what we have. I love it and I am living it! I hope you also start living it. Invite everyone to everything. Trust me ward activities are not meant to entertain us rather to give us a missionary opportunity. Remember that. That is actually something I have been learning out here is that all these things that I learn are actually not just for me but rather help me to become something specific so I can help someone else do the same. We are all very special specific tools in the hands of our master and this work is perfect and flawless. It will be a perfect product. Anyways--to lightning round. Wow I am super happy for Wes. How wonderful that he found the one he loves and that they are able to start the eternities together.   Yes Tampa is cooling off. Almost to the point of being a little chilly as we cruise on our bikes late at night because now all we have is bike due to the other Elder breaking his wrist. So two months and no car for us hahahaha. I am gonna get thin.... Things in Tampa are great and just getting better and better. I just feel everything I do coming together and starting to work. Dad yes I do feel like I am where I thought I would be but actually I am already a little farther. I never thought I could become what I have become and I am super excited to have so much more time to just learn and grow that much more. There are things that I just had to realize that have really just helped everything in my life improve. There is still a ton to work on but I am where I wanted to be and now going further. I have come to accept that this life is not about becoming perfect but rather learning to become perfect. The people of Enoch were not a perfect people they were perfect repenters. I feel like I have come to know the power of the atonement in ways that I did not even begin to think of before. I realize that we are meant to become much greater than we ever thought we could be and I am learning how to progress daily. It means everything to me and because it means everything to me so does the Book of Mormon and the doctrines and obedience and repentance and my thoughts words deeds and everything else that makes up who I am. Tomassa and Enrique have decided to get married but there is a little bit of a hold up. Luckily we got a member who is awesome to come over and she has just taken charge!! Like we don’t really even have to worry anymore because she is on top of it. There has been many a blessing thrown my way.  As for school when I get back-- I am really kinda just trying to stay focused on the mish SO we will discuss it a little later. BYU is out for right now. My comp is from Olympia Washington. I have not eaten anything weird lately but I have decided that Columbian food is probably the best out there. You guys have got to try it. I am definitely turning Hispanic because now I love hot sauce and things are not sufficient if there is no kick and a pound of grease in everything hahaha. Oh this weekend is la noche de hispanidad which is a HUGE activity in the which everyone represents their country and brings food and does dances and such. We are reppin the USA and we have quite the dance to show!!! Can’t wait to get it on film and show you.

Dad I loved your letter also and I am soo happy that work is killing you. hahaha better killing than barely surviving right? It’s kinda that way out here right now. We keep getting so many people that it’s hard to keep up with all of them. 4 referrals this week! One of them already had a baptismal date!!! not to mention we knocked into a bunch of really cool new families and last night I made like 40 something phone calls and got some appointments out of them of people who were pretty interested. one of them even said she had been waiting till she was eighteen to be baptized and that she will be in February so that’s another baptism coming up. Well I love you guys and I hope everything is just going great.  Not much time-- but this week was up and up and up. We found 4 new inv we had 4 people at church we had quite a few member presents we got 4 referrals and we have 1 date set with about 4 to 5 more to be set soon! We are so excited and things are great. However at the same time we got dumped a little bit and had fun doing it. Lizzardo the miracle lesson guy told us he would not be interested in learning anymore. So we asked why and he didn’t know what to say so it went from I am not interested to Ok I promise I will call you guys when I have off work somehow.. hahaha anyways though I have to go so I hope you all know I love you and I miss you and that I cant wait to hear from you again next week!

Love,  ELDER OLIVER

October 8, 2012



Well Well Well... Hola Mi familia hermosa!!
I am filled to the brim with such happiness after reading all of your letters, being fed by the apostles and the prophet, and after such an awesome week! I sometimes just sit on my little couch and just think about how happy I am and how much love I have for you and for everyone else. haha it is sometimes overwhelming--in a beautiful way. I just love you guys and am soo excited to have a whole lifetime with you all, not to mention the infinities. How great and beautiful was Conference? I feel like they had peered into my soul and taken bits and pieces and used them to form their talks. It is just awesome how the Lord works.

Well things here are going really well. Baby boy Russell is handsome and strappling, a man of valor and sound understanding. I love him and we are just enjoying every minute, even though a ton of what we have been doing lately is tracting--day in and day out. I have finally come to the point where I LOVE tracting. Its like "oh who’s behind the next door?" and I always feel like Alma and Amulek when the doors slam so it’s quite invigorating. I also have really come to enjoy loving people at rapid rates. hahaha So yes we have been tracting a ton, but that’s what is suppose to be done. However we also have a good mixture of less actives and member lessons which are already showing signs of help for us. I can’t believe how straightforward the very apostles and prophet were with being missionaries. I hope you guys make every effort to start being a referral giving family. It’s the only way the work will get done. Every one of us needs to add our 1/12th of the teaspoon to that pound of honey! haha great example eh? Also we have tons of people to work with. The Lord keeps putting people in every place and we are just seeing so much success. Like I have never been so successful with knocking doors. but well come back to this.
Well this week we found 3 new people. 1 was a lady named Nancy who called us up and asked us to come over out of nowhere!! We set a baptismal date the first lesson, then 2 was the father of a lady we had taught who have two kids. His lesson was awesome and he actually prayed for like 7 min straight! 3 was another miracle! Last night after conf we got bailed on by a lot of people like plans and backups alike so I decided to go start doing some follow ups. We saw people but they only wanted to set up for other times during the week. Awesome right? This means I get to listen to the Spirit. So at about 8 at night I am looking through my list and I get this feeling about this guy we knocked into. Soo I put in like 2nd place behind someone who ends up setting another return time. So again this name comes to me and I decide to just go check on him. He had been fixing a toilet when we knocked his door so not much of a good relationship or nothing but we go anyways. Well we knock the door I wrote down and this pretty buff ripped guy opens the door. I ask him if Esterno is there and he kinda laughs and says no wrong number kinda jokingly. I even went so far as to ask him if they had recently had their toilet fixed! hahahahaha I was kinda like scramblin to find this guy. But the guy says no and kinda starts to close the door when all of a sudden Elder beautiful Russell pops the intro in Spanish which is still pretty hard for him. I of course come back and we start. We end up asking him if he knows anything about the Mormons. He said I know you don’t drink coffee. Perfect I think!! Now I got him!! hahaha I ask do you know why we don’t drink coffee? To which he replies no. I then testify that there is a prophet on the earth today who receives revelation for us and what he has said is that our bodies are temples and we should not partake of such things. He then goes "do you want to come in?" so at 8:10 at night we find this man who actually has been perfectly prepared. He was asking so many questions and told us how he had been searching all over in Cuba praying to find the true church. He led himself through the first lesson and asked so many questions about the atonement which he didn’t know about. He kept asking about forgiveness and saying God will always forgive us to the which we showed him a scripture in second Nephi that says the atonement is infinite and eternal. He just got soo excited and told us to come back whenever and as much as we could. He finished with a fervent and specific prayer asking if the Book of Mormon was true. How cool is that?? The Lord is powerful and strategic. I love to be a small part of this wonderful work. Not only that we set 2 other baptismal dates this week with a couple who are not yet married. Tomassa and Enrique. Both are just super positive and were asking us to tell them what not to do so they could do better or get closer to God. However we had run out of time so that lesson is tonight and I am super excited to talk about chastity! hahahahahaha This is my comps second time in 2 weeks. Well of course we also talked with a boy who doesn’t believe in God but rather an African deity and its saints. It’s a weird and kinda scary religion and when we talked about God I think he really liked it. Martel is his name. Also we ate at a Columbian restaurant that an investigator owns that was soooo stinkin good! Oh my dear I have to take you guys out when we come back! Let me tell ya! Well I do have to go so I love you and I hope you know how happy and great I am doing. I hope you all are just dieing to build a close relationship with a father who loves you and knows you better than anyone else.
LOVE ELDER OLIVER

(ps please excuse my excess in exclamatory punctuation, I am trying to become a more exciting texter and now 1 excalmation point just doesn’t feel sufficient. hahaha)

September 24, 2012



Hola Familia!

Well I am pleased to announce that I am having a baby!!! Yep you heard it-- I am spoutin out a brand new baby tomorrow!! hahaha (this is missionary terms for training) I am super excited and just ready to get my hands on this new baby boy. haha Pretty exciting right! Cool thing is that Elder Berry my "father" dies on the same day that his grandson is born just like my grandfather died on the very same day I was born. Cool coincidence right. Hopefully I can live up to the legends. Mom if I had to say my favorite companion that would be hard because they are all my good friends and I love them all but I really really liked serving with Elder Berry the second time and I actually have enjoyed being here in Tampa with Jarquin than anyone else. We just are having good times and hes just got a good straight on head. But I am pretty pumped because that means I will probably be here 3 transfers with two of those being 100 percent positive. It’s the 12 week training program so that’s two I will have with him. Then-- the next is a week before Christmas so we think pres will let us stay another hopefully. We will see. Well your letters were awesome and I seriously loved them. Sorry but I don’t have much time today due to transfers and such so it must be short so I can get all the pictures and music and things! Sorry..
Things this week went awesome! We found a new family who was super cool and actually just straight up gave us all the info we need to contact them and come back and visit without even us asking. She said the blessing we left in their house touched her and helped her feel the spirit and that she had been going through some tough times but that she wanted what we had! How cool is that? eh? Then we got into another house this week and taught the plan of salvation to this woman and man who had just lost their father. pretty good lesson and it went great. They want us back soon too. Then we had a couple of people show up at church which was awesome but when we went to pick them up with the member some Jehovah Witness missionaries came over and started having a conversation with us. It actually went really well and I was just once again reminded of how important it is to share our message and to be out everyday because (they were actually very nice) these guys could get to them and corrupt them so to speak. I just feel even a bigger drive to go out and find and I wish our members were more like the Jehovah Witnesses members. They actually go out and do and sometimes I just don’t feel like we all do. So talk to everyone you can. Also we had to talk to a woman about chastity this week who wants to get baptized but she has a boyfriend of 16 years. Pretty fun topic and hopefully they can figure it out because he is constantly playing video games and barely breathes. haha so sticky situation. She wants to leave him but then it’s like we separate the family to baptize them? haha We’ll see what happens. Also we have not found that family but she tells us more specifically where they are each day. So hopefully soon. She actually predicted transfers and said Jarquin
LOVE,  ELDER OLIVER

September 17, 2012



Hola Mi Familia!

Once again I am super happy to hear from you all and to hear all is going swell. Your letters are consistently getting better and more entertaining! haha As for me I am super sweet and dandy. Couldn’t ask for anything more really. haha Maybe my family and that would be awesome but I was just talking to my "dad" here in the mission (ELDER BERRY) and he goes home this coming week. I almost wanted to cry realizing how fast time has gone and how it’s already time for him to go. I feel like he was just telling me how he had hit 9 months! Now he is on his way home completely changed having given his mission everything he could. What an example eh? I hope the same for myself. But it was a gentle reminder that time is going quick! I am on the downward slope and time is only picking up. It's like an epic race to see how much work I can get done and how many souls I can change and help all before it slips right out of my grip and there I will be walking off the plane and into my family again ready to start life and get moving. I feel a determination just burning inside! It’s like a craze and sometimes I think it is making me a little crazy. hahaha but its super funny because as I have been burning and even a little scared about all this time going and stuff I have received so many answers to prayers. It’s like Heavenly Father just keeps telling me it’s all good and to be patient and win the great reward for great shall be the reward. I love all the small things from your letters because you’ll never understand how strangely they answer questions and the desires of my heart. This is Gods work. I am in this and I feel more in it now than ever before. My heart is full of gratitude for the wonderful time and experiences I have already had but it also is dieing to have more and to keep going. I have never wanted so badly to stay out until late working, I have never felt so bad for being 5 min late to studies, I have never been so willing to give up my will and accept the Fathers, I have never been so patient, I have never been soo humbled as I have been, I have never had such a testimony. I feel it, I love it, I hope for it and I hope you all feel the same. I just can’t wait to get back to work and to share the gospel. It’s inspiring and has helped me see not only who I can become but also who everybody else can become. I feel love for those I don’t know, I feel sadness for they who are sad, I feel happy as others become happy, I feel despair for those who are left alone and through all these things I am finally starting to realize how my Heavenly Father feels for us. Given it is only an insignificant amount of what He feels but it is closely binding me to Him. I realize how much everything we do here in this life is so that we can understand just a little part of it all. We fast to make sacrifice like Jesus Christ did. We repent to understand the power of the atonement. We pray that we may always be led by Him to help us become who He would have us become. Something special that happened this week changed my whole perspective and inspired me on a whole new level. It came in the simplest way. A going away testimony by an elder named Elder Schwanevelt. He talked about how his mission had started and how he had been so afraid that his weaknesses would prevent him from being successful. His hands would shake uncontrollably when he was in front of other people or in the spot light so to speak. He showed us how badly they would shake for he was nervous even then to be up in front. But he went on to explain how his weaknesses, these small things that made him weak, became his greatest strength because every time he would get in front of someone and they would shake it would remind him of the Savior and how much He had suffered and that because this weakness always brought him back to Christ they had then become his greatest strength. Remember seems to be the word most repeated in the Book of Mormon. I too have weaknesses but my weaknesses will be my greatest strengths. The gospel is infinitely powerful. All who live it will come to know their Savior very personally and it will be a foundation that cannot fail. The best part of it all is that we are all called to share it. Open your mouth because we never know how much it will mean to that person. I love my mission and I hope you love yours.
Transfers are coming this weekend so I will keep you posted on my whereabouts and the going ons. I am super sad! This has been an awesome and inspiring transfer. I have learned so much and am so grateful to have spent it in the presence of such great and admirable elders. I have come to know a little more about myself and just how weak I really am as I have been around them. Strong and firm in the faith, desiring to live to the utmost high standard of obedience, driven to work and share, never justifying but rather enduring well. It has helped inspire me to change a couple things and to just think a little differently. What I want is slowly becoming what God wants and not what I want. It’s been a long process but I have loved every step of the way, especially the struggles. They are few and far between but when they come my go time mode kicks in and I just try to lose myself. It’s been very hard but I feel like I have been very blessed and so it hasn’t been too hard.
As for you guys I am super glad to hear that you guys are great.  I love you guys and hope all keeps on going great. You are the greatest family a guy could ask for.
LOVE, ELDER  OLIVER

September 10, 2012

Hola Familia!
Well this week was again fantastic and awesome! I loved the letters as they all inspired me and helped me feel like working even harder. I just love hearing from you guys and how everything is going. Thank you for always finding time to fill me in. It means a lot. A little business-- Yes I got the package and it was great! We have been demolishing the candy like crazy. I also love the pictures! They are great! You guys are all so gorgeous! Yes marvelous. just marvelous. hahaha  Yes it has been raining quite a bit but it makes it nice outside until it gets muggy, then it’s rough. But my lounges are pretty used to it and yes everyone sweats especially in the houses that don’t have ac. You just get over it. haha Plus my glasses fog up every time I get out of the car so that is fun too. But yes my contacts are doing well. I fear for my eyes. I think they are getting worse and the contacts can only be worn for short periods of time otherwise my eyes begin to burn up--even the brand new pairs. So I save up and wear the contacts when they are really needed. haha Also I do plan still on checking on byu I want to apply soon so If you guys could get any information you think I will need that would be great. GPA and such. Also pday is used to play and have fun. Sight seeing is what we do on bikes haha as we ride to and from everywhere. But if there is a certain spot we do go out and try to see it. We usually play basketball and volleyball and relax or last week we went bowling and had tons of fun. I took pics so it should be good.

As for me and my comp here in Tampa we are doing great, having fun and just working still. A lot of this week was less actives and such but we did end up finding Samuel finally and were able to talk to him and find out how he is doing. He has been working his tail off and the Lord has blessed him. Not only that but he is constantly sharing his testimony with others. He told us how sad he has been because he has not been coming to church due to lack of car and communication but he has been reading and studying and sharing with everyone what he knows and now he finally has enough to buy a car! How cool is that! Wow the Lord will always provide right? haha We have a Seventy coming to the mission this week so that is exciting but I wanted to tell you guys that here in this ward there is a member who has like many gifts of the spirit. Like every time we go over the weirdest most coolest things happen. She always talks about what we study without knowing and she teaches us many things. But the cool thing was this week she called us and told us that there was a family near by us who was ready to hear the gospel and accept it. I asked her where we could find it but she told me to follow the Spirit. We are going to find them this week. I know it and I am super excited to do it. I just love working. The first day we just got door after door slammed (which has never really happened to me so far) but I thought of Alma and Amulek and just got more excited. We are going to find a family! What does it matter if 100000 slam the door! haha I am just ready to go! SO I hope to report next week that we found them and that I can tell you how cool it was. I love you guys so much! You are the inspiration to my work. I can testify because I know how important it is to me. We are the light in the darkness. I love thinking about that. I hope everything is great this week and that you all have tons of fun! You are the best family!

LOVE, ELDER OLIVER

September 4, 2012

Hola Familia!
I am super happy to get to write you guys this week. The letters were wonderful and I enjoyed every one of them. I am happy to tell you that things here are great! We are having TONS of fun and just working our tails off haha. This is already by far my favorite part in my mission. I don’t know why it’s just great. I will explain a little after I catch up on all you guys told me.
First I must apologize-- sometimes when I am writing letters I don’t know how to write what I want to say very well so it comes out very strongly and then because I don’t reread what I write I miss it. The pictures are great, I actually went back and read the last letter after reading these couple and I realized I sounded like a whining child! hahahaha please forgive me is all I can really say. I really love pictures and such but please don’t feel bad if you cannot get them to me. I know you guys are super busy! and now I sound bipolar.... hahahaha but really I just have wanted to see a couple things and I was kinda starting to wonder. But anyways I love you guys and I just like showing you off to everyone. People here in Tampa especially are always asking to see you guys. So I whip out my little booklet of every picture you have ever sent me my whole mission and the good times get rollin hahaha. Dad I loved the letter and I do have some ideas about missionary work. First off I don’t have it memorized but somewhere in D&C around 80-100 section it talks about bearing testimony to all the world that our sins may be forgiven. Also because that is what God desires of us. Then I usually go over to the story of Alma the younger and read about how they had prayed and fasted oft. Then I would recommend finding the mtc talk given by Holland about Peter and never going back in the which he uses the last chapter of John and the last couple of verses when the Lord says Peter do you love me and he responds yes you know that I love thee and this happens three times but the line after is "Then feed my sheep" I have actually used this in a couple talks I have given and it went great. The spirit is super strong as you explain that the way to show our love for the Savior is through our missionary efforts. I love talking about it. Also set up splits with the missionaries read chapter ten in preach my gospel the part about using members. It talks about using them so that First and foremost the members may have an opportunity to share their testimony and get a taste for the missionary work, and second to be a fellowshipper. Get the members a schedule have everyone going out with them as much as possible, get with the Spanish missionaries and send the men that know Spanish with them so that they will remember what it is like to serve. I love the word remember there is so much power behind it. It’s all over in the scriptures but you’ll find like over 20 uses of the word in Helaman 5 explaining the power of remembering. I also pray and hope that your business is going well and dandy. The Lord will always provide as long as our desires are to serve Him as stated in second Nephi. For some reason right now the numbers don’t come to my head but I guess if you’re going to use these things you will have to search. Sorry.

As for me things are great! We are workin and workin! and I love workin. We just had a baptism on Saturday and a guy back in Apollo Beach who I started teaching with Shields also got baptized on Saturday. So it was fun to go and see them all and also to have our own. This week was a lot of preparing and getting ready so not too many exciting things but Mario is awesome! He studies for his interview! hahaha he has already read half of the Book of Mormon and now he is giving us food. I got to try starfruit this week which is delicious by the way if you have not tried it. Oh yea Elder Jarquin baptized him and he had to do it 5 times due to his legs popping out because the other elders forgot to tell us that the water leaks so it was like 5 inches shorter than normal. haha but it was great and beautiful and we even got some other investigators there. We also got two new investigators who are pretty positive and hopefully will start coming to church with us this next week named Tomassa and Enrique. I just love being a missionary! haha

Well I love you guys and hope all is well and dandy but I must get back to work. Watch the Mormon messages and I am a Mormon movies because they are awesome and inspiring and way more important than anything else. We need to be having a spiritual experience everyday.

LOVE ELDER OLIVER

August 28, 2012

Hola mi Querido Familia!

 

 Hooodaladdy it was good to hear from you all! I loved the letters this week and they left me feeling even happier than before. So a few quick answers-- No the hurricane did not get us, All it did was rain profusely, we didn’t even have to stay inside all day but when we do we study and sleep and workout and study and play a game or something but mostly study and sleep and catch up on things--hahaha doesn’t sound too fun but I love it! It’s like a readathon back in elementary! haha The Book of Mormon however is a lot more interesting and a more fulfilling read so we all come off winners! haha Yes I love bike riding and it is great! We are being super blessed by the Lord right now so we are having tons of fun and just work work working. I LOVE TO WORK. hahha it makes everything better and it fills you with an indescribable feeling of happiness. My comp Elder Jarquin is awesome and because I am not much of a phone guy and he is we work together great hahahaa. I have really got to practice making my texts interesting and friendly because it makes a huge difference! One I didn’t expect. No the dl thing is just for the transfer you are called to serve. So it changes a lot so everyone gets a turn. Yes we got a lot more contacts and one that is actually very very funny. So I want to tell you the story. So the other day we were doing peace and blessings which is a more powerful and very successful way of knocking doors hahaha. But we knock into this lady and she goes "NOOOOOPPEE I don’t wanna hear it!" and we were like kinda taken aback because while she said it she was smiling (we get the line all the time but not with the face) so we were like "We actually are hear to leave the saviors peace and blessing upon your home" anyways it gets into this huge like super funny battle where she makes up a thousand and five excuses and we destroy everyone and then she tries to get us to go away by offering us water but she wont close the door on us. hahaha so we keep going (the words of the apostles in our heads about being very persistent) It ends up we are just kinda laughing and slowly setting a return appointment with her sneakily. Well she keeps saying no and no and no but we tell her we are coming back for her and she laughs and tells us good bye. Well we went back to that area to talk to some people around her and she saw us through her window and took off to who knows where trying to avoid us. haha she really is a very nice lady-- just doesn’t want to hear it. BUT hears the funny thing. We knock a couple doors and no one answers which is like weird. So we kinda decide to go to Walmart and get a couple things that we had forgotten to get. Well we walk straight into Walmart and who do we see? Yep Mrs. Rosa! hahaha she had like 2 boxes of fudge brownies and some chocolate syrup and some chocolate cereal so we give her a hard time saying things like "Hermana I think this is a sign;)" hahahaha she just starts laughing and talking to us and tells us how she tried to avoid us but apparently it didn’t work. She talked to us for like 10 min and then we told her we would come by this week. She said okay but make sure it’s at a good time. hahaha pretty sweet eh? Asides from that yes our baptism is solid as a rock and I am super happy to see him get in the water. He is super prepared and ready to go. We decided Elder Jarquin would do the baptism and that a member would confirm him and we are on our way. Not to mention we also saw another pair of investigators who actually saw us and came over to talk to us! So we were pretty excited to see them too. Ahh things are just going awesome and I am loving it. Also that was a service opportunity we had and it was tons of fun. We went with the ward and it was a great time. It was some program for feeding kids.

Anyways I love my mission I love being out here and I love your letters. I LOVE you guys. We are an eternal family, one that will make it. I love knowing that my family is good and that my family is obedient to the principles taught by the prophets, that my family goes to church, that my family sticks together and is founded on the gospel, that my family loves me, that my family wants to hear and talk with me and hear ALL my stories. I love you guys more than anything. I also wanted to tell all of you that if you are not reading the Book of Mormon you have no promise. Personally studying it. Not just family scripture at night. Sorry I just really have a big testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon and I really hope that you guys are all reading it daily by yourselves. I love you!

LOVE,  ELDER OLIVER

August 20, 2012

             I think this was after the last huge storm they had before Isaac--it is the backyard of his apartment.

Buenas Dias!

Well were to begin? I LOVE my new area. Here in Tampa things are awesome! I feel a renewed desire to be and follow the Lords will more closely and I desire to serve harder than ever before. I don’t know why I just like the area and things are awesome. My new comp Elder Jarquin is awesome. He is a dork who loves being himself and he is respectful and super positive and he is kind and really an example to me. He is from Honduras and so his Spanish is awesome although he grew up speaking mostly English. So after two small transfers he is able to keep up and most of the time dominates me in my Spanish. Pretty humbling and I love it because it makes me want to study more and practice all day. Also there is a ward here and it is huge! Like 100 to 150 people came this week! Pretty exciting and it is nice to be back in a ward that is bumpin instead of a branch that is struggling. Plus the members are awesome and just are ready to help us in any way possible. Plus we get groceries bought and given to us all the time! I have never eaten so well in my life! I made a triple stacker overeasy egg cheese and meat sandwich that blew my mind and exploded in my mouth many wonders. haha So the area is awesome--plus there is a small gym in our complex that is great and my comp wants to get big with me so we are working out hard in the mornings and then biking is a lot more fun than I thought. I just feel like it’s more of an adventure on bike! I LOVE it haha weird but that’s how it is. We just sweat and sweat and then the members just take care of us as they see us in our state of humility hahahahaa. They love us here!
OH YEAH! The first day I got here we set a baptismal date with this guy and now he is coming to church and is super excited to get baptized. Sept 1st is the day and I have no doubt it will be awesome. He is already participating in the classes and trying to answer questions. His name is Mario and he is Dominican. He looks like the nicest guy and he is all smiles.We taught him the first lesson and the spirit was super strong as we testified of the restoration of the restored gospel and that this is the church that Jesus Christ set up so long ago. He loved it and we just could tell how prepared he had been. It was one of those oh yea I shouldn’t wait around for those people who do nothing because there are so many out there who have already been prepared! Plus he must like me because when I commented on his paperboy hat he later ended up giving it to me! haha So now I can pape it up. Not to mention some lady is getting us shirts and we just got more eggs and milk! It’s awesome! So this week we had a lot of stuff go down. I said my good byes on Sunday and Monday . Still loved it and all but I think Tampa has already won it over. Plus district meetings are in Spanish! haha  We also had an awesome activity this week and I got to meet a ton of members and we played soccer. Missionaries verses the Hispanics and at first we dominated so we were chanting USA USA USA!!!! haha and then it got a little more intense and some other men from the ward came over and owned us! haha we left utterly obliterated. hahahahaha Poor USA we have disgraced you!! Then we got to give some families the peace and blessing of the lord and it was awesome! They loved it and were like all gung-ho about the church after that. Pretty sweet. However here in Tampa I am learning about what type of woman I will marry. I have met many an attractive ladies who are just not attractive to me anymore. Crazy eh? Like all I know is I can now recognize things about girls that I didn’t before. All I can say to my sisters is keep as pure and virtuous as possible because it makes you very attractive to another who is the same. There aren’t many of those these days so you’re rare to be one. I loved all the letters and the pictures were awesome. I am sorry to hear that all the stuff is starting back up and that time is going too fast.
Dad I loved your letter and well we will talk when I get home about all the mish stuff but you look mighty nice in all those pics. I am diggin the pants and striped polo. Oh and the hoodie of course. I feel like my tooth for sugar is becoming more like yours everyday because I have come to just taking a finger full of icing and eating it many times throughout the day. hahahaa You were right brownie mix makes a great desert! hahaha But I love the pic of you and mom. REAL LOVE! eh? hahaha Mom you look way good! I miss you and I love the letters. I like how you always tell me about your lessons they always inspire me and I want to go and read and teach about them too! Time is flying by and I will almost hit my 15 month mark. The family is getting big quick! I say we hit Neverland for a few years. I bet there is a lot of people waiting for the gospel there. I mean why else would they be called the LOST boys?
Well I love you guys so much and miss seeing you. The time however is short and will be over soon. I am loving it here and things are great! I have never felt better and I am so excited to work work work and to be exactly obedient. I have some work to do but it will come with time. You guys are the best family!
LOVE,  ELDER OLIVER

August 13, 2012

Hola Familia!
So this week was transfers and The news is........................................................ I am leaving to go to Tampa! Pretty crazy eh? And pretty sad! Elder Shields and I were so sure that he was out and that I would stay but yea verily the Lord had another plan for us. So he is getting Elder Beus (friend from high school) and I am getting a recently trained honduranian who doesn’t speak Spanish but is learning. He seems pretty cool so I am excited. The only down fall is that I am now on car share. So for the second August in a row I will be on bike baby! haha Hopefully I don’t lose all my weight I have put on. There is also other good news. There in Tampa they give us groceries every week so the Lord is taking care of me.  So this is all pretty crazy but I am super excited! I love my mission! haha  As for you guys back to the grind! How insanely fast was that! HOLY CAMOLE I never realized how brief summer is! It’s quite a bummer. But awesome to hear that everything is going so great and that everyone is so well. I just love you guys and miss you all a ton. I love hearing about you and seeing pictures and such.
Well Mom to help with some of that stuff I have no idea about the blog but I will be in Tampa so I might soon be able to get it for you. I hear we spend lots of time with President. Oh not to mention he made me DL so now I will have to conduct meetings with them there. So should be interesting but I’m excited. As for the whole Veronica thing it is all right because now she is in Bradenton and we sent the missionaries there to go and see her. They were the ones who gave us her as a referral in the first place. Oh and Samuel showed up this week and is doing awesome. He was so sad that he had missed church and such but he has been working like crazy trying to get a car and a house and now he lives guess where............In Tampa! like right by my house! How cool is that? That means he will be in the ward with us and that I will still be working with him. He suffers a ton of weird junk but the Lord blesses him abundantly. He didn’t really want to go to the ward in Tampa because he didn’t know anyone and the branch has kinda been like his family lately so when they told him he had to go to the ward in Tampa he was bummed but now he knows me and I can help him make a smooth transition. So pretty cool. Then yes white people are just straight up rude and here it is hard to not be a red neck. Like EVERYONE is a red neck here! --at least the whites are.
Mom and Dad I love you and seriously appreciate the work you guys put in to raise us up in the gospel I never knew how hard that would be until I saw many others who hadn’t. It makes all the difference in the world trust me! haha I just love you guys and that letter was great!
This week we had a sweet bbq with a ton of less actives which was cool and we committed them all to come to church but then of course someone ended up making an excuse and no one came! blast. haha Then we just had a bunch of visits Tuesday and Wed and then Thursday sports night was awesome. I ended up wrestling (play wrestling) this one Hermano named De Los Santos and he loved it! He is awesome and I was probably the saddest leaving him and his awesome family. They are so cool and they were always feeding us great mexican food. Then Friday and Saturday were awesome and we got pretty close to setting a date with Jesus and we kinda had service all day Saturday helping a WHITE family who was like super ungrateful. It was fun to serve but weird when this little like 14 year old girl comes out and takes pictures so if anything breaks she can show proof that we were the ones who broke it. It was crazy but you gotta love it. Then Sunday was sweet because everyone showed up and it was pretty sweet. I got quite a few pictures so should be good. Well I love you guys and I hope you know that I love my mission and that I have a testimony of the gospel. It works. I love telling people about it and I love to see that realization in their face when they realize everything is going to be okay and that there is happiness to be had in this life and in the life to come. I love listening to the prophets and apostles who inspire and encourage us to lift our bars and be better. I love the Book of Mormon. I have already learned so much from it and it surprises me how everyday whatever I read earlier applies to the people we talk to that day. I love to teach about Joseph Smith. The simplicity of the message yet the power it holds is a work and a wonder in and of itself. The sacred experience is undeniable and the Holy Ghost has to be there every time we testify of it. I LOVE YOU guys and miss you .
LOVE, ELDER OLIVER

August 6, 2012



Hola Familia,
Well this week was once again awesome but I must first say that I am so happy that the vacation turned out so well and that you all had so much fun. I wish I could say the same about having to wear a jacket but alas I cannot, the heat here is pretty awful but I love Florida so it makes up for it. I was so glad to hear that you guys got to see and do so many cool things. Thank you mom for being a master planner. I have to take lessons from you so that someday my vacations will be just as good. I also seriously appreciate the PICTURES... ha-ha Also mom I still haven’t found the card and everything else is good for right now.
So Jelly Belly Factory eh? It’s funny because we have been having such a great time lately getting the Jelly Belly bags and laughing as someone gets an awful flavor. Usually I get roasted popcorn of death. It must be the ginger fingers that bring it out. haha And how cool that you guys got to see all those cool things about Pixar. I love that kinda stuff and I hope you guys will tell me more about it when I get home. Kinda weird that that is probably the last vacation without me. TIME, it moves far too fast. Also might I say that you guys all look awesome in those pictures--like models or something sheesh. Sorry I don’t have much time today but I thought I would tell you guys a little about our week and such. We don’t know if we are moving but most likely one of us is leaving. I kinda and seriously hope that I stay but if not I am good with that too. This week was pretty cool due to the fact that we saw a ton of people and got a lot of work done. A lot of it was less actives but it was cool to see some of them in church. We had probably 50-60 and that’s great for this area. The members here are so cool and you can really feel some love when you talk to them. They all seem to like us and they get freaked out when we tell them that transfers are coming and even when we don’t too. haha We just have some seriously good things going on. However at the same time we had veronica the lady with 11 kids leave to Bradenton and then Samuel just kinda disappeared. We call him every day and he won’t answer. We think he is headed back to Puerto Rico to go and be with his family. Its terribly sad but right now that’s probably best for him. This week we also had a switch and I went up to be in Apollo Beach with the English Elder Roberts. It was a lot of fun but I was once again reminded of why my like for white people is diminishing. They are just so mean and out here in the south redneck kind of trashy and just nasty mean. I mean they just reject everything and have no qualms with just being completely rude and offensive. Like at least Hispanics will acknowledge you and say sorry I am not interested. It’s just a different world. We had a sweet lesson with this guy named Victor and we actually soft committed him to baptism but we are not sure if he will ever real commit. Then yesterday one of the members in our ward gave an awesome lesson and explained very clearly to our investigator why baptism was necessary and then bore his testimony. Well needless to say he asked us to come over on Tuesday and we plan to set his date there. We also went mountain biking again and it was again exhilarating. We are just doing great and because we have a lot going on time just flies and now there is another transfer over and done with. 6 weeks that is almost a whole quarter of school! Yea it really kinda puts it in perspective. Like 9 transfers left--or less not sure. Well I love you guys and I am sorry this is so short and not very informative but I hope you know that I love you and miss you all very much. I hope you finish the summer well and that many adventures are had.
LOVE ELDER OLIVER

July 30, 2012



Hola Querido Familia!
Well it has been a great and awesome week here in Apollo and I must inform you that it is about the same as Wauchula. The people here are awesome and they all speak Spanish so it just gets better and better. However I love the people of Wauchula so much and miss them dearly. But this area is great and we are having tons of fun. I also am so glad to be informed on your whereabouts and that they include California. How awesome it must be to go to the beach and play and have tons of fun. I love vacations! haha Send me pics please! especially of Clay and Sadie and Cassie and Chelsey and the little girls in gymnastics. if you want you could just put them on the hard drive! We missionaries just love pics and everyone in the ward likes to look at my little booklet thing I take around. Quick lightning questions answered round. I have now had like 3 to 4 dinners a week and we get fed lunch a few times too. I am now at 190 lbs. Spanish is awesome and I love learning it. Scott was known here in the mission for being a super good missionary but a killer of animals/ best Spanish speaker. I gave a 3 year old child a haircut the other day and didn’t realize the lady wanted me to like do layers and edge his head and such so when I tried he ended up looking like he was wearing a helmet and like he had a receding hair line. Shrimp has been on the menu lately. The kind where you have to pull off the head and deshell it. We went mtn biking and it is awesome. I now have seen many a gator. We are starting something in the mission called the Saviors peace and blessing and it should be a superb tool. Ft Lauderdale mission like 3x in baptisms. I got to teach a family with 11 kids under 12 years old the plan of salvation with the father who somehow escaped being deported. We were interrupted by some other missionaries from another church during our lesson with them. I am almost at 14 months and time is going too quickly. Did Grammy and Grampy get my letter? Tell them all that I do love them and miss them. We met a Mexican who thinks Obama will make us speak Chinese and hates him for it. We are working with Samuel our recent convert who has such a testimony that he would not deny the church when his uncle told him to or he would throw him out of his house. So he walked the streets with his things until he somehow got a hold of someone because not to mention his uncle mixed up all his numbers (he is in the mafia) so when he tried to call us he was calling someone else. Now he lives in a factory and is borrowing his boss’s car but has no one and nothing but his clothes and work for the moment. Yet he was there at church with his white shirt and tie and took the lesson on charity to mean that he should give more and be more charitable even when many who could help him are not. I was astounded when no one even offered him a room in their house or anything. We were the first to offer him our beds and shower because he has to shower with a factory hose. Keep in mind this is a man who just had open heart surgery and had to leave his life of wealth in Puerto Rico to come here for the medical reasons. He is use to making around 150,000 a year or more because he was a body guard and is ripped out of his mind. This is the guy that reminds me of dad by the way. Yet spirit still alight he goes on and trusts in God. I have never seen so unshakeable a testimony in my life. He just barely got baptized like 4 weeks ago! Now he has already been rejected for his beliefs and thrown into the streets with nothing but his phone which was messed up and clothes. I can’t tell you how great a feeling I get when I realize the Lord gave me the opportunity to be a part of his conversion. I am spiritually edified just standing by him. He actually apologized for not being able to do splitz with us this last Saturday. I LOVE THE MISSION! hahaha I am getting used to sweating all the time again. It is in the straight 90s all this week. I am reading in Mosiah and love it. D&C is full of things I never knew. God’s power is Honor. I love my Savior Jesus Christ and I have come to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God in a much more powerful way this week. I feel a desire to be better and strive diligently to do it every day. My heart is full of love for those who do not love me and I have learned that to be strong can sometimes be a very lonely thing. I hope you guys are making sure to put on the armor of God everyday because I have been watching the cheesy seminary video of it every day during lunch. and I don’t want any of you shot by the wiley darts of the adversary. All this and much more to come hahaha
I love you guys and hope the best for you on the vacation. Try to do anything the missionaries are doing. It will help them out so much.
LOVE ELDER OLIVER

June 18, 2012

Hola Familia Mia,

Well like always I truly loved the letters and the messages this week. All of them seemed so positive and happy and exciting. I love to hear that from you guys! Congratulations on performing music camp so well little girls! I always loved watching you guys dance and sing.  As for me, things are going awesome here! I seriously am having such a great time here in Apollo Beach. We had a couple miracles this week and we just started a couple more sweet things so I will just get started. Lightning responses, Carlee this week I was able to have the delicacy known as Chicharrones. In other words pig skin. but this was not deep fried nor very delicate. Actually it is straight up soft chewy pig skin with all the fat in the world still attached to it, and I happened to be Mr Lucky that night and scored the box with the most in it. I was able to eat about 7 tacos worth of these things and I had barely dented the pile. (as a mexican you just use tortillas as your fork and spoon and knife, so you tear out a chunk of tortilla and use it to grab a chunk of meat and beans and rice so just a hint when I get back home dont judge me for manners! hahaha) so 7 tacos means 7 tortillas broken into chunks with a big ol pig skin drippin with grease and juices in the middle. Not the worst but definitley not the best. As for the pizza mom yes we finished it well and got wings for afterwards. That puts me into another thing, I am gaining weight and size again. due to the very broad intelligence of Elder Shields when it comes to workouts and supplements and such.  He is now leading me in a full on charge for 200 if not 225. We just got to start going to a gym due to the English Elders who allow us to be their "buddies" so we can get in. Its part of what they payed for. Today I did 215 on decline bench by 5 with 4 negatives! oh yea. I am beat let me tell ya. Also my comp from the mtc that went home is coming back out this next transfer and we hope to train him. So a tripleship in a house of about 20 by 20? Should be fun. Now as for spiritual things or those things that actually matter. We are having a baptism this Saturday! His name is Samuel Lopez and he is from Puerto Rico and he is about as buff and thick as dad and wears the same type of clothes and everything. He is however a little younger. The funny thing is is that we met him last Sunday and committed him to baptism after one lesson. He said yes and then bought a whole sunday getup and he does everything we tell him to. Just fell right into our hands from out of nowhere! So we are super pumped about him! Oh to go along with the whole size thing, the members here are really starting to love us and because they love us they ask us to come over and eat all the time now! Last night we had HUGE turkey legs and Mac and Cheese and mole and a bunch of other stuff! Great for the protein intake eh? hahaha But the cool thing is that the family we ate with is less active and owns a store and now they like us so we have a family night with them this week and everytime we come she lets us take anything we want from the store. pretty cool stuff. As for that other baptismal date, it hasn't been set because apparently the girl is going through a nervous breakdown and never is home now. So we hope she took her chill pills this week hahaha. No we really love her its just hard. We did a ton of service and we got to hang out with all the members as we painted a whole house in one day. Then afterwards two of the hermanos took us out to eat at a chinese restaurant which was super good. So we have been doing pretty good and we are only getting better. Even english classes are going very well. we have two returning people and one brought his two kids last time. We kinda hope to baptize him and his family. So we are doing great and I love being here!  So keep it swell and write back all the adventures. I love you guys because you are the best family!

Love, ELDER OLIVER 

June 11, 2012

Hola familia!
Well this week was yet again another great one with many adventures and some great growing experiences. But first I thought I would deal with some business.  I have been using a little card money because some of the companions I have had as of late don’t know how to use money and their families are not so well off so I try to help them out a little here and there and I have bought myself a couple things. I had to buy new running/sport shoes because my others were destroyed and luckily at a Ross I found some sweet Nikes that were 100 but I got them for 35. Like these are like top of the line running shoes! So the Lord definitely provided. Then I had to kinda restock when I got here because they really had nothing so I bought some soap and a couple necessities and I got Elder Shields a birthday gift because no one has ever really celebrated his birthday. So I got him a little something.
Also I had to pay to go to a walk-in clinic so that was like another 25 bucks because I had an infection on my face for the first 2 weeks I was here and all the doctor told me was it was Herpes and that I needed Bwister hoff (Chinese doctor) ((blister off is what he meant to say)) he wouldn’t even give me anything! Blister off is pretty much neosporin. At least it wasn’t staff or impetigo again though but it did make getting to know everyone fun as little kids said things like "I think there is a bug in your skin" or "what’s that big red thing on your face" or even the members "what happened to your face?" hahaha its all been pretty humbling and I have grown much hahaha. Also I don’t mean to be so demanding but I might need a new frame for the glasses if possible. I will send my hard-drive in soon so you guys can go through it and see all the other pictures I have. I will try to send it sometime this week because that has all the good stuff on it. Thanks for everything you guys do to keep me up. I truly appreciate it.
As for you guys it sounds like the fun begins. Awesome to hear that music camp is still going on and that you little girls get to do it. Enjoy every minute of it! Also Clay live up efy to as much as you can! In dads words it’s a microburst of wonder in every way. Use it wisely and don’t pass a minute because of fear! Cassie great to hear you have an awesome job.
As for this week. We actually ended up have really low numbers. We had a funeral and a viewing all Monday night and half of Tuesday so that cut into our time and then we had a special training in Tampa so all of Thursday was gone but that meant weekly planning on Friday so there goes most of Friday and then we had a couple of service opportunities. I got to ride the minny horse once again! hahahaha We did pretty good though and we even had a very less active but once very positive member show back up at church and he really participated and even helped fellowship a new guy that just showed up at church and asked us to teach him. He’s pretty cool and I think he just really wants to get baptized. He’s like a Puerto Rican guido, ripped an slicked back black hair with an Italian face. haha so the Lord is providing pretty well for us. Not to mention we had a serious talk with an investigator who we were going to drop but then she told us she wants to get baptized. SO yea things are looking up and we are excited to start going to town. Also luckily for us today we get to go to a restaurant owned by a member and eat a 28 inch 16 pound pizza for free because he wants to see if we can do it. Oh yea he is straight Italian so it should be delicious! I will tell you next week how it goes. Hhahaha We have a lot and the Lord is definitely watching over us. I love this work and Yes I love my companion Elder Sields we are like best friends, and there is only good things to come. I Love you and miss you all so much and hope the best for you this week!
LOVE,  ELDER OLIVER

June 5, 2012

Slumber Party -- Missionary style

Hola Familia,
Well Well Well I always knew my family was made of steel eh? hahaha Congratulations on conquering that which is known as the trek. What a feat and it sounds like you came out of it with more than just aches and pains. How awesome it is to struggle and grow not only physically but also spiritually and mentally. I am just so glad to hear it was so good!   Also sounds like we have some soon to be Broadway dancers huh? I can’t wait to get to see them when I get home. Trust me I believe you when you say they are the best! Well In all honesty this may not be another great letter because I am with about 12 other elders in a library and we are all going to play some sports and have tons of fun this pday but I don’t think they write as much as I do or read as many letters as I do hahaha! Let me tell you it is so great to be back into the midst of many an elder. I was kinda losing it there in Wauchula because we are away from everyone but now I have got 12 new guys who are tons of fun and happy to be around me. I really couldn’t ask for more. This morning we cooked about 4 dozen eggs 6 pds of sausage and 2 packs of bacon soo now we are content and juiced up for a great day hahahaahaha. Being an elder is awesome. To answer a few quick questions yes this is suppose to be a strong season for hurricanes because the heat is different and they are predicting at least one if not two as far as I can tell. ON the upside our shack of a house is located in the red zone or the most likely to be destroyed if a hurricane came. hahaha so we may have a couple of adventures coming our way. Also the Chicken turned out great! We marinated it for 24 hours and then we stuffed it with onions and ham and such and then we tossed it in tin foil and cooked it in a fire. Turned out great except for it stank of fecie. It tasted great it was just an overwhelming aroma. We think elder shields stabbed the fecal bag. hahaha yea but don’t worry we had cleaned it well and we are fine after like 4 days of eating it. As for the area things are going great. I think there is a ton of potential for this area we just are trying to figure it out and pinpoint where we need to strike. For ex we hold a sports night every week and this week there were more investigators than members there at the church playing ball. Not to mention we had a guy come to
English class and then another guy just called us but the one who actually came said he was interested in our message. So we will see how all this goes. Also my Spanish is coming back like lightning! Muscle memory or something haha because it is really getting pretty good not to be prideful or anything. Just self measurement and there is always room for improvement. Also this week we got 5 member presents which hasn’t been done in this area in a long time and we ended the week with 16 lessons. Before it was like 12 or 13 so we are on our way up and things are going great. However we did just have a man in the branch die this week. His name was Alfonzo (fonsi) and everyone loved him a lot. I met him once and I already loved him. He was very funny and just had a light about him that made you really happy hence why he got the nickname fonsi, just a goof who although his health was terrible was full of life and never complained not once. So when we heard he died we were kinda down and worried about how his less active family would take it. (They just had their grandfather die like 2 months ago also) Well All we can do is be there to support them and try to cheer them up and hope the best for them. There is just a lot going on and we are really trying our hardest to do it all. You have got to tell walker that his call is awesome! He will come back speaking BEAUTIFUL Spanish and correctly.
As for you guys might I say that these letters for some reason really kinda touched me spiritually. I just kept getting those chills as I read each and every one. It was just like a tingle of excitement and the best hope for you guys. Yes we are all getting older but I can’t wait to become like every Mexican family out here and have like 40 kids each! Hahahaha I know the lord is taking care of you guys and I am just very glad I don’t really have to worry about it. That is something that hurts many missionaries out here as they try to serve but keep getting freaky letters from back home. Some of which they have shown me that truly made me grow up and see life for what it really is.  They are all the greatest of people but they each come from such hard backgrounds. Just trust me when I say we have it easy. Anyways I love you guys and I am so happy to always hear from you. It makes the wonderful day of pday that much better and helps the week go by with a lot less worry. Sorry I also don’t have much time but I will write back next week hopefully a little bit longer of a letter.
LOVE,  ELDER OLIVER

May 29, 2012

Hola Familia Oliverio!

Well it has been quite the week and many good things are a happenen. I am super happy to hear that you guys are now finished with school for a while and that you are now able to relax and enjoy the free time! I challenge all of you to have as many crazy adventures as you can think up and then write me back about them. I personally have already started my adventures for the summer but that will come a bit later in this letter. haha Congratulations! to Cassie Mcgraduate Oliver! You have finally successfully passed through that known as High School and now the real big adventure begins. Don’t forget that death is the ultimate adventure but that this is a mighty and great one. I am so happy that Chelsey our wonderful and very wise sister was there to give her love and support as you finished the great adventure. Trust me when I say that family is where it is at when it comes to starting anew and fresh. So you are lucky to be part of a beautiful and caring family. Just keep me posted on how everything goes. I am sorry to you guys that I did not write yesterday. Of course Memorial Day means no libraries are open and therefore we the Elders of Apollo Beach have no means of communication

Now as for me over here in Florida. Apollo Beach has turned out to be great. I have an awesome companion Elder Shields who is definitely a worker and super fun to be around. He is calm and serious but knows how to love people and definitely knows how to be fun. It’s like we are already best friends. haha However this area is really slowing down lately so it’s up to us to pick it back up and keep going. It’s funny because I actually had a dream where people where telling me this and telling me that right now we are the only ones capable of doing it. It actually really impacted me a lot and kinda made my fire burn just a bit brighter than it already was. So we are pumped and ready to go and do. Also yes Elder Shields is super into working out so we go to the church every morning to do p90x and it has been going great. Not only that but he loves eggs so all we have eaten is egg after egg hahaha protein.... So things are going well and the members already seem to like us and now we are starting to get a little deeper into it. Like setting up splitz and family nights and ward activities and a couple other things so it should be great. But here is a little something interesting. We live in pretty much a shack. Like 20 by 15. so not much and we live in a very woodsy area so there are many a bug-- and big ones they are. We have already killed about 3 spiders as big as my hand one of which I paid Elder Shields five dollars to eat and we have a guardian gecko named Pedro who keeps out the roaches. We have billions of ants in our back yard, we found a grasshopper the side of half a dill pickle (the ones Grampy gave us as kids) and there are chickens everywhere. Now here’s where the cool stuff comes in. Because we are near the end of the month we do not have miles nor money for food so being p-day yesterday we thought about what we could do to satisfy miles and food problems. So we ended up having to stay at the house but to make the day interesting we decided to get us some food by hunting the neighborhood chickens. hahaha (they belong to no one so they are free game. We made two spears and proceeded to hunt. Long story short we got one and now he is cleaned out well and in a marinade waiting to be cooked over a fire either by us or an investigator who said she wanted to cook it for us. hahaha Yep we can make huge fires in our backyard because Florida is wet and it’s not against the laws so we sometimes just whip up a fire for like a half hour before we go to bed. Yep so we have been having quite the bit of fun. Oh yea we also got to do service and while we were there the lady has a mini horse and she said we could go play with it so after using my horse whispering skill I mounted and rode into the wind! hahaha It was actually pretty cool. We also have had a couple of very spiritual experiences where I happened to say something that apparently meant a lot to Elder Shields about things that he has been thinking of and we almost set a baptismal date. The spirit was so strong that the lady was actually crying probably because she knew she needs to do it but something is holding her back that must be pretty hard so we will continue working and testifying. I just really already like this area and I am super excited to get even more into it. I love this work and I can’t believe I have already hit a year! HOLY SMOKE! haha its going by too quick! I have nightmares that I am back home and I don’t feel like I completed my mission and you guys keep asking me what did I learn like 5000 times and then it resounds in my head all day! hahaha So apparently as much as I would love to be home my heart is here in the work for right now and I am loving every minute of it. I feel like I have already learned a ton but there must be more for me to learn otherwise this dream would cease to repeat itself haha. Well I love you all very much and I really do miss you. It makes a guy happy to know that everything is well back home. You guys are the best family!

LOVE, ELDER OLIVER

May 21, 2012

Hola Querido Familia,
Let it be known that I have just finished one of the most successful and life changing weeks of my life and that if I am to explain any of it I cant talk so much about you guys even though I really want to! We are just getting back from Port Charlotte where we spent our last pday as a zone and district together and now we are sharing the computers so I really am going to try and fit everything in real quick like. First off I am soooo excited for all the things going on in your lives! These truly are the best of times and will help to make the everlasting memories we dream about haha. I am just super proud of all of you and my heart feels relief to know that everything is going so well and that you guys are pulling through everything. I love you and miss you very very much and I hope the best for you in everything you do this following final week!
As for me, Yes I am getting transferred. I am now going to Apollo Beach which is like the second best area in the mission and it is all Spanish speaking! Not to mention I am going to be with like one of the coolest elders in the mission! Elder Shields. haha Pretty exciting and let me tell you one of the saddest thing I have ever come to hear. I kinda knew I was going and everyone kinda knew it too so this week was full of a ton of final moments that have seriously changed my life! It was one of those times where the Lord tells you how grateful He is for you and how proud He is of the person you are becoming. I seriously was just so worried that I hadn' t done everything right and that maybe I should have been different when all of a sudden the Lord took the time to tell me otherwise. I dont think I have ever felt so much love and compassion as I have in these last couple days! To start we did some splitz this week with our boys Leo and Esteban who (for as strong in the church as they are) are having questions about things and it was one of those moments where I knew I was in the right place at the right time because they had the same questions I remember having when I was their age. It was just such a testimony to me as I answered their questions and was able to comfort them. Not to mention on our splitz they have been a little down because they haven't been seeing success already and for some reason they kinda were like why do we even do this. So of course the Lord provided two lessons one with each of them in the which the Spirit was felt very strongly and they saw the change in people taking place and it ignited the fire once more. I was just so happy to have had the opportunity to show them what missionary work is really all about. Not to mention when two boys who are 18 and 16 start to cry and tell you they are gonna miss you it really makes you feel like you did good. Then we set some time aside to go and see as many people as possible and it was just so weird because sometimes you just never realize how much of an effect you have on people until you tell them you are leaving. I had Cruz in secrecy buy me an "I love Jesus Ring" (not to strong of a member yet) even when he has absolutely no money and nothing but he went out and found me something that I can and will keep forever. Then Abuela (mama Juarez) knitted me a red and blue beanie and gave me a box of really good chocolates and I had quite a few people make me promise I would come back and that they would provide me and my parents with a place to live. One guy even told me he would take us up to Disney World and a couple other places. So lots of love was felt and I can not believe how hard it will be to leave this area. I now have come to know that I do know how to love and that the Lord is changing me. Finally for the finale I got to give a talk on the Book of Mormon as my last testimony here in this area. Well people afterwards were calling me cry baby but telling me it was great and trust me they are just as big of cry babies as I am! hahaha I just love this area and I am going to miss it so much. I took a ton of pictures so I could show you guys everyone but I might lack a little. haha I LOVE YOU and miss you all but I have to go! I hope you guys are all having as great of a time as I am and I keep you all in my prayers every day.

LOVE ELDER OLIVER

April 23, 2012

HOLA FAMILIA!
Well well well is it good to finally get to write you guys! We have had an awesome week that was busy again but we are finally back on track. We had 18 lessons this week and many were very good and inspired so it was awesome to participate in some of them. But to first start off with. Business. Well Thank you so very much for getting my whole eye thing taken care of. It truly means a lot and I sincerely appreciate it. My eyes do do better out here due to the MOISSS CHURE (nammy gum gums from master of disguise for all who could not guess it.) So it makes it a lot easier. Also I am so very sorry for not having written very many people back. I definitely do need to get on that it's just we have been so busy and now we are doing the Book of Mormon read and all sorts of other stuff so really these are excuses but I promise to try and get some out not to mention birthday stuff. Plus Not to spoil it but there might be a little somethin somethin in the mail for you mom finally.... No more will I say about that. Just Enjoy. Also yes being the district leader just means being an example and having a couple more responsibilities like leading District meeting and doing switches with all the elders in our area.
I am very sorry but once again this letter has to be small again. We had a service project in the morning which is awesome because I have been praying for service opportunities and such and then we had to get much done so now I am here late today and family night is here at the church because we are going to play volleyball. So just a couple comments. Thank you soo much for the pictures! They are super good and Everyone is looking so georgeous let me tell ya. I just feel very blessed to have such a wonderful and loving family because some of my companions do not and it is actually very sad! So thank you guys for being normal and happy hahaha.  That kinda brings me to what happened this week for us. So we had a bunch of little cool experiences and we are super close on like 6 baptismal dates. We have Lucy Xavier Delilah Nancy Benjamin and Eli. Yep we are going to town with these people and hope to soon see them enter the waters of baptism! It is kinda just like a waiting game though because most of them have some kind of health problems. Also we have now found a bunch of people to take on splitz with us so we are most likely going to kick up the member presents pretty well too. Things are going great and I am doing awesome. We have had two awesome performances and are having the third one this weekend so we are all pretty excited and it should be really good. Also I have now completed the first round of p90x and it is making me lose weight! I almost fit back in my suit again! hahaha Hopefully I reach my goal of 200 by the end of the mission! I was actually pretty happy to see the Catmulls because it is really weird to see someone from home but it was pretty comforting and such hahaha. Bishop Catmull started talking in spanish with me and it really kinda surprised me! haha Hes such a good guy and their boys are huge now! Man oh Man I feel like I am gonna get back and need to wear high heels just to even be taller that Carlee!! sheesh. I also am having quite the learning experience out here. Its just funny how many things you learn when you are on your own and you realize what you had before hahaha. But I love this mission and I love the people of this area sooo much they are my family and they love me as much as a non blood person could. I seriously see so many family members in the people I work with. For instance Maria Rojas is like the Mexican form of Grammy to me! hahaha It is so weird because I totally know how to be around her and what to say because it is just like grammy. My companion is like Lincoln Liz Deleon is like Mom I haven't found dad but this lady named Mindy looks nothing like Chelsey but reminds me so much of her. Anyways its just funny how much people are alike and it just makes me love them even more. I LOVE being out here and I just enjoy every minute of it. I can learn so much in such a short time but these are things that are deep and take time to change. Let me tell ya my Heavenly Father likes to give me trials and I think He just likes to watch me grow. haha Anyways I am sorry I dont have much more time So I love you and hope you all have an awesome week!
Love, ELDER OLIVER

April 16, 2012

Hola y buenas dias mi familia!
Yes indeed it has been quite the week let me tell ya! haha First week of the transfer already down and now it’s pday again. Wow time is just going too quickly! We are doing great as a companionship. Elder Weddell is awesome and a very fun guy to be around. He actually is a little older than me by 6 weeks and I have served around him before but now we are comps and that is a little different. haha Well as for the pictures situation I am very sorry for the lack of them but do remember that many pictures were not taken because my camera broke so the only way I have them is on my hard drive. Not to mention one of the cards cannot be read by anything-- card readers, cords that connect the camera or really anything. It is just been a pain but I will try to send you it this week. Also as District Leader it really just means that I have to go to some extra training meetings, lead district meeting, be an example, get the numbers at the end of the week, and make the follow ups on the district. And things a like hahaha. Anyways I do have a little bad news. So the other day I was sittin there listening to a talk during our lunch hour when I fade out of consciousness and happen to wake up to broken glasses. Yea I have no idea how it happened and neither did Elder Berry-- not only that but I have no more contacts. SO super glue is what I have been using to survive hahaha. But asides from that everything is really good! P90X is going very well and it is actually giving me a lot more energy to use throughout the day! Haha Thank you so much for sending it out here.
Well as for me and my week a little bit. I have never been so ridiculously strained on time! We had pday then the switches on Tuesday which means waiting for everyone to get everywhere. Then zldlc in Sarasota on Wed, then singing practice in Sarasota on Thursday, and then district meeting on Friday and then service on Sat and Sunday was our first performance in Lakeland so we went out there right after church so we could be there for the last practice and for the performance later that night. Luckily for that one a member drove us and it was the Juarez family so they got to see it and they loved it! So I guess that’s pretty good news. Needless to say we had barely any lessons and now we have been left desolate for miles. Looks like we are pulling out the bikes this week maybe hahaha. Anyways we did get a decent amount of visits for how little time we had to do it but not as much as we wanted. So now we have a ton to do this week. So hopefully it all plays out well and we get to meet our goals and see some people make some changes. I don’t really have much to say this week because not very much happened besides meetings plus we have to deep clean our apartments this week so that’s gonna take some time out of the day off hahaha. Anyways I love you guys very much and I really hope you guys are all doing well and that you have an awesome week and that you make the most of what comes! I love you more than you know!
LOVE ELDER OLIVER