(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.
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
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
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