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