February 13, 2012

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

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

February 6, 2012

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

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

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

Love,

Elder Oliver

January 30, 2012

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

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

LOVE, ELDER OLIVER

January 22, 2012

Well dear ol family of mine who I cherish so dearly I am quite sorry to tell you that I am short on time today. We had a breakfast with a member who was halfway to Sebring where we planned on spending the day and then we had to go somewhere else to use the computers and now I have to hurry because Elder berry hasn’t even started his email yet. SO Lightning question round! Mom I am doing great and eating a lot. I actually have had 3 members tell me I am looking more heavier and like a man. haha Also the card is on the way. I have found a way to send them online but of course I have no time today so expect them later. I really apologize for the delay and realize my laziness all these things will be taken care of shortly. Dad as for my comp we are great and I am quite sure that it was divinely inspired. I think now that time has passed and a couple key things happened we will become great friends. He is hypoglycemic. Meaning he can’t eat sugar almost at all because it sends him on a ride of emotion and anger and tiredness and unfocus. It’s the opposite of diabetes. So I can see a change in him and a light that comes from the hope he has, because before he thought he was just going crazy.Well Things here are going awesome. We only got 16 lessons this week but a lot of the time was spent getting to know members and we had some rotten luck with some set appts but we have only grown in our desire to obtain our goals again. Something cool is that elder berry and I can both speak Spanish well and we understand what people are saying. So we can have some awesome and powerful lessons which definitely happened this week. There was one lesson with Elena where we asked just the right questions and she started to cry and by the end she was just saying that she wanted to be baptized and she was soo happy. I really can’t even explain the joy that comes from knowing that you actually were a tool in the hand of god for a short time and that you were able to carry out a work that seemed so impossible. We also did catch up with the Olmos family and they like us so much that the mother asked us to come over for dinner so we could try her best meals. haha Blessing coming and comin. We also were able to do service where we painted a house and helped move a guy out which took all day but I was able to establish the relationships I need to get into ALL the Juarez households. haha if that makes sense. It is just more likely that we will be invited over because apparently they like me and elder berry a lot. It really has been a super fun week and we found a new less active to work with who has 7 kids and none of them are baptized so we are excited and she seems to like us and she seems to be changing little by little. However I really do have to go. I feel so sad that I can’t fill you in very much or send you my pics or very much this week but it sufficeth me to say that the work is going forward and that I am happy and progressing every day. I love what I am doing and your prayers are working. I get to see them every day! I love you and miss you sooooo much you are the best family in the whole zorrodeldesierto-altion (that’s my nickname here) (means desert fox)
LOVE ELDER OLIVER

January 15, 2011

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

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

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

LOVE,

ELDER OLIVER

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

January 2, 2012

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

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