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