October 22, 2012

Well Buenas!!

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

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

Love,  ELDER OLIVER

October 8, 2012



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

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

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

September 24, 2012



Hola Familia!

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

September 17, 2012



Hola Mi Familia!

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

September 10, 2012

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

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

LOVE, ELDER OLIVER

September 4, 2012

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

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

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

LOVE ELDER OLIVER

August 28, 2012

Hola mi Querido Familia!

 

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

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

LOVE,  ELDER OLIVER