Another awesome letter from Elder Oliver

Bailey has started writing a form letter and taking a picture to forward as an email.  If he wants to say anything personal or respond to a specific email, then he does that separately.  His reference to his "idea" is regarding this new plan to get to more emails.  Last week's picture of his form letter was very dark and extremely hard to read and type back on the blog!:

Sorry my letter idea sucked and the pics were dark, I'll try to better next week, but this week it might be the same.... It makes it so I can actually read peoples emails and write back!

I'm gonna have no clothes if I'm always giving them away, but it's so worth it!!! I'm gonna be so broke from my mission¡ I want to buy Claudio I nice Bible and BoM. Usually you just buy your baptisms an ok BoM, but he's my first investigator and he's so awesome!!! We taught him yesterday about the Sabbath Day holy and he said that the whole day he had been reading and stuff because he felt like he shouldn't do anything on Sundays.... He truly has been prepared by angels!!! We were gonna baptize him this Saturday, but its fast Sunday and bishop wants to get the word out so more people will be there, so we have to wait 2 weeks... :( but its ok, it'll be way better!)  We also have about 4 other investigators that are GOING to be baptized this month! My comp and my goal is 8 baptisms before he goes home DEC 19. Were gonna do it!!! Our zones goal is 5 a month and i want to get all 5!!!!

Our apartment is a bit sketch, but really not toooo bad. There are some way better and some way worse, so I'm like in the middle... Joseph is doing super great and I didn't know about Austin!!! That just made my day! I pray hard for those two!!... now time for Brig and Ethan. I'll find some scriptures this week!! Plus you might wanna listen to the talk by John Bytheway, I think its called "Get off the tv and get a life" I have all the talks on my ipod, but I don't listen to them to much. We don't have much time.  My Spanish is decent. I can talk a little better and I'm starting to understand a tiny tiny bit...The hardest thing was Saturday and Sunday... Saturday was probably the hardest day in my mission, because we cant find nuevos!!! The best thing though had to be having 6 investigators in the chapel!!! If you could pray to help me with that, that would be great!!!! Love you all so much!!!

Oh PS I've been thinking that I need like business cards or magnets or something with my email Iambaileyoliver@gmail.com and my facebook info... in Spanish... to give to the people in my areas, if you could? I dunno, its not that important, but it would be nice!!! oh and this is why i do the pic thing because there's so much more I'm gonna say in the emails...

And the picture letter:

October 21, 2013
P-Day, P-Day, P-Day !  We went to the mall to write home and after we wrote, we went to Subway at the mall and I had the most awkward experience of my life!  This mom has her kid in a stroller and the kid was me and started to try to get out of his stroller.  When he couldn't, he started to cry.  When he finally got out of the stroller, he stopped crying and came over to me and grabbed my leg and wanted me to pick him up.  It's against the rules, but Elder Ha, district leader, told me to, so I did.  I held him for like a minute and then put him back in his stroller, but he started to cry again.  His mom got the food and sat down a couple tables down from us and the kid was still crying.  He then came back to me!  That's when I decided to get up and leave.  Everyone, including his mom was laughing.  The weird thing was  the mom was young and had black hair, and this boy was, I dunno he could walk, but not talk, but he had blonde hair.  I promise, I've never been to Uruguay.  It was so awkward!  Then we came back and cleaned and that was my day.  Monday was an interesting day.

The weather down here right now is more crazy than Utah.  It's hot, then cold, then rainy, then it's super windy.  It's just loco!  We have an investigator, her name is Noella.  She is single and has 4 kids.  One of the kids uses a wheelchair and the cool thing is the wheelchair came from the church!  She's awesome and went to church.

Saturday and Sunday were hard days.  Especially Saturday.  Both days we had a lot planned out and then ended up with nothing... except a lot of menos activos.  It's good to teach menos activos pero necesitamos nuevos.  (It's good to teach less actives, but we need new (investigators))  Saturday was probably the hardest day in my mission so far.  Church was spectacular though, we had 6 investigators in church!  Our numbers the other weeks were 1-0-0-2---6!!!!  Plus, we had 4 recent converts and 2 menos activos!  We only had one charla (discussion) all day, but it was with Claudio!!!
Claudio has been prepared by angels!!!  In sacrament he said, "When can I be baptized?"  We tried for Saturday, but we couldn't get the announcement out in time, plus it is fast Sunday.  Pero, dos semanas and we'll do it!  In charla, we talked about keeping the sabbath day holy, and he told us that he doesn't feel like he should do anything after going to church on Sundays anyway!

Oh, we had a ward talent show Thursday, it was great because there was food!  You don't know hungry until you are missionary!  Oh, and I never thought I'd say this, but I am excited for fast Sundays--it is so great and helpful!  That's about all I can think of... Oh, and Spanish is hard!!!  That's all.

From Cary---I am glad I know some Spanish, because I figure with all of this Spanglish, Elder Oliver's letters will be in all Spanish by the time he is done with his mission:)

"Missionary work is stinkin' hard"

Yes, this appears to be where Elder Oliver lives!


 And the letter:

"Its great to hear from you.  I wrote my email this time before to save time and have more time to read the emails.  Let me know what you think!  If you could start putting all your questions and the most important stuff at the bottom of the email so that I can read the questions and type that would be great too!  The weather is being dumb, and my allergies are super bad down here, but I'm gonna go get meds for it today.  The new investigators are great except the family....They are baptist and are super awesome and nice but the are only reading LDM to defend their religion and not to know it is true, so we are gonna stop visiting them for now.

This week was hard, but it flew by so fast!  Our area makes us walk a ton!  Our main area is about a 25 min walk to everything, Belle View is about a 45 min (possibly longer) walk, and we have the area "El Tato" that's 2km farther than Belle Vista, but we haven't gone there yet.  I don't think we want to...we don't have a map and it would just wast our day.  Last p-day, we just SLEPT, it was GREAT.  we got a new investigator on Tuesday.  Her name is Brandy and she is 10 years old.  It was super awkward when I asked her to get baptized, but I think her family wants to be baptized as well, but ehay are hard to work around.  Friday we all worked in the HHE, area because they are struggling.  Their area is super rich so it is kind of hard to teach people there.  After that I felt pretty sick, I think because of lunch, but, oh well.  Saturday morning we did service for a lady in our wars.  We set the concrete on her roof.  It was super hot and hard work, but I had been wanting to do service.  After that we got lunch so that's always nice!  we actually got lunch every day this week!  After lunch,  we started to fast for and with an investigator, Elena.  She's been an investigator for a couple months and she is more like a member, but she cant get baptized because of her boyfriend.   They have lived together for like 7 years.  he wont marry her!  It's probably the biggest problem we have down here!  And it's not the money, it's just the men don't want to marry the women! 

Our investigator, Claudio came to church and I think he felt really welcomed and had a good time, so I am pretty sure in a week or two we will finally have my 1st baptism! Oh, plus I gave a talk on the importance of missionary work.  It was rough, the Spanish is slowly coming, but it's still hard!  Sunday I almost gave a white shirt and tie away to someone because most all his clothes were stolen and we wanted him to come to church, but he didn't show up.  I've learned this week that missionary work is stinkin' hard, but super rewarding!

Love,
Me
Elder Oliver

Two months out!

Pday again, times flyin.  It's already been 2 months.  The mision is going great! Lots of walking. Lots of of working, and lots of eating! Its been cold and hot and the weather is like Utah, it just won't make up its mind. My Spanish is coming along really well, I still can't understand anything, but it's coming along.  I can talk a lot more! We eat with the members a lot! We actually have lunch every day this week, which is good cuz i have no money! I have about 1300 pesos I need reimbursed for but the financiers are super slow at it! Elder Ha, who I live with, used to be a financier and he said it only took him about 2 days and its been over a week! I did buy food today though. The only thing I look forward to on Pdays is writing, because my comp doesn't like to do anything, so we pretty much do nothing. Last week took a 40 min bus ride to a huge mall for nothing... I did get Mcdonalds though! It was 15 dollars for a meal with small drink med fry and an extra burger.... It was worth it though! Then we went to a Walmart type store so my comp could buy a new tie... then we left. It's alright though, I don't really need anything. Let's see. This week was a struggle. We didn't really have investigators, but then Saturday we started to fast and the miracles started to happen. Plus we've been doing things different and teaching from the BoM better and the spirit has been so much stronger in our lessons. We had a lesson with a recent convert and her non member friend, both much older, and the spirit was so strong at the end we asked her to pray to see if she should go to church the next day. We all knelt down, except her cuz she couldn't and she prayed, but she was like I know I'm not ready but when I am should go. I know she got an answer, but wasn't specific in her question... it's so sad, but we did all we could for her.  She and about 3 other investigators we are gonna stop focusing on because they are just not progressing... Its super sad, and hard because finding people is super hard, BUT  we've found 3 new investigators, one family, that are totally ready for baptism and it's just super awesome and about time because we haven't really had any true success until now and its just great!  It's just super great to finally be having success and the bishop is super awesome and super helpful.   He's super young too, he just had his second child, but he served in Argentina and he's trying to help us be the best missionaries we possibly can be and helping us get help from the members. What else?  We've been waking up at 6 to play soccer in the church. I'd rather sleep for another 30mins but its 3 against one.

Its super good to hear from you guys and awesome to hear how good you are doing.   Everyone is doing exciting things and it's just great.  I got a package from momom and popop that was so nice!  It was a little notebook, post it notes, adress labels and some ballons oh and a laser pointer-flashlight. Next email can you send recipes for breakfast lunch and maybe some desserts?  And how to make the potato salad and egg salad.  The recipes prefferably need to be simple and stove top or microwave. They can be for the oven but we haven't used it yet cuz theres no time.  It's amazing to hear that the oil stuff is working so well, especially with Cam.  Next time I will try to get more pics, but this computer doesn't have a place for an sd card. Next package I need those twistable scripture markers, if you can, cuz I'm out of the green, and a normal sized photo of the family cuz people love pics down here.  I love you all and its super great to hear from you.  I can't wait to call you in just 2 months.

A sweet letter from Bailey's mission:

Dear Oliver Family,

            Tuesday, the 24th of September, we went to the airport in Montevideo, Uruguay, to pick up Elder Oliver and welcome him into our mission.  He arrived full of excitement and enthusiasm to get to work.
            We spent the day getting to know him, and we recognized that he will be a great asset to us here in the mission.  We know that he will bless the lives of many wonderful people.
            That Wednesday was transfer day and after meeting with his trainer, he headed off to his first area so that he could start ¨ [bringing] to pass the immortality and eternal life of man¨.
            We are now sending you a photo of him and his trainer, Elder Montenegro.  As you can see, he is extremely excited and ready to start.  We are so excited to have your son with us and hope that you receive this photo with excitement and pride in all that your son has done to prepare himself for the opportunity that he now has to serve the Lord for the next two years.



                                                                                                          Love,
                                                                                                          The Newsomes

A Picture and the newest letter October 7

Hola! So this week has been pretty long and rough! It's been rainy and super cold this week! It finally got nice yesterday! Our area is super huge so we walk a ton and all the references and old investigators adresses from the last missionaries are wrong so its super annoying when you walk 45 mins to find an investigator only to find out that the house doesn't exist. It just wastes our time. Plus, a lot of their "investigators" we took over aren't interested at all, so we've been trying to find a lot of new ones this week, but that was hard with conference taking up yesterday and Saturday. We were at the church all day so we got 0 work done on Saturday and Sunday in our area. We worked for like an hour in different areas with the offices (assistants, secretaries and financers) Because that's their area and got some work done. It was fun to go out with a different missionary, who spoke english, and learn from them. I love my companion! He's super great, but it gets really annoying sometimes that he doesn't speak english. And I'm trying so hard to be patient with my comp in the fact that he eats like a rabid dog who hasn't been fed in over a week, every time we eat!!! I mean we're missionaries and always hungry but not that hungry. The worst is when he eats his cereal during personal study.... OH well, he's super awesome other than that. My spanish is coming along really well I feel like, at least in the way that I can talk better. I still can't understand squat!!!! People say the understanding takes about 6 months because they speak such ugly spanish down here!!! Plus everyone says I'm blessed to have a latin comp because in 2 weeks when we meet back up with my district from the mtc for oro training they say I will be further ahead than everyone because I'm only ever around Spanish. I hope so cuz its been a struggle!

I've been seeing and realizing that miracles happen every day, big and small. Juan y Laura, our very 1st contact on my 1st day, have been great investigators. I think it was Tues that they told us in our charla that they wanted to quit smoking!!!! We had only taught them the restoration! It was awesome! I've learned to love the people down here! Its upsetting when they don't wanna hear the gospel! or when they don't keep up their commitments, like Laura! She says she knows what were saying is true, but she won't pray about it! She prays every day, just not about her questions.

The members down here take care of us and help us a lot! They're awesome! For some reason the people who feed us most are the menos activos so its always a good chance to get to know them and invite them to church. Wed this one couple made "Barbeque" they have no sauce or flavoring down here, but it was still good. the only problem is he kept loading us up with meat and I was full! That was the longest 30 min walk home ever! I thought I was gonna pop! Right now we're at this big mall writing, getting food and I think Elder Ha wants to go tie shopping. I wanted to go into a couple of the stores, but my comp doesn't understand that you can go into a store to look, you don't have to know what you're going to buy! Its ok though itll help me save my money! We definetely need feed! We brought it all to conference Saturday and ate it and then had no food for Sunday. Luckily we have these huge bags of cereal!!! The hardest thing for me has been waking up and working out in the mornings! I don't mind waking up, but on the mission its hard to wake up knowing your just gonna start working out! Plus Saturday we got home at 12 30 cuz priesthood session went till 11 and we had to set our clocks back an hour so we got 5 hours of sleep....

Conference was great though!!! It was fun and you get so much more out of it when its literally your job to be there watching! There were some spectacular talks and I wish my investigators would've gone. Pres Monson said very last that this conference has been one of the best, EVER! My favorite talk was probably by.. .No se,.,, I think it was Elder Holland? It was the last talk on Saturday morning! I just got so much out of it for my investigators, menos activos and just everyone!  I thought i was gonna have time to email to review my journal and notes, so I don't remember a whole lot, but it was a great session. If you want a talk on tithing you should watch elder Bednar's, he layed the smack down! " If you are not a full tithe payer you need to change your ways and repent now" The 13 North Americans watching together thought that was great.

It's great to here from you guys!!!! It's awesome you guys are all doing great and that everyone's happy!!! You guys are all doin so much its gonna be crazy when I get back! I don't have any pics, well maybe one, cuz I haven't had time to take any cuz were always busy, but I'll try to get you some by next week! And no, our apartment is not clean, even if we clean it all day today it wont be clean... I'll show you in a pic next week!

If you could activate my personal debit card to make it work down here that would be great! Also in a package if you could send a regular sized pic of the family that would be great, or a letter. People for some reason down here can't figure out who the parents are in our family pictures??? They all think Clara's the mom???? They also think Clara is the most beautiful woman on this planet! It's funny to try to listen to people talk about all that and how e and i are the same and cam and brig are the same. I miss you guys a lot and prey for you daily and its good to here the same. Love you all!

ME

September 30th email--Mom got behind in posting:)

Hey! I`m doin great! It wasnt very fun waking up at 3 on Tues to come here, but its alright. The first day was wild! The elderly missionaries cooked us all american food in the mission home, which is huge and fancy. Then we went proselyting with someone, came back, had some class type things, went to bed and the next day we met our trainers, got our area and went to work!

My comps name is Elder Montenegro. He is such a good missionary! He`s from Peru and only has 3 months left, so ill kill him (Be his last comp before he goes home). He's from Peru and he's awesome! He was a ZL for a while and I am the 2nd person he's trained. Before I got to know him, everyone told me he is an example of what all missionaries should be like and I agree!

Our area is Aeroparque B in the Este Zone. We proabably have the biggest area. Take the country and split it into 12 zones, then take our zone and split it in half, then take that and split it just a little more than half and that's our area if that makes sense. Let's just say its massive!!!!

I love it here though. The members feed us almost everyday and its really good! The people in our area are really kind and receptive. Our area is right by the airport so its super close to the city but not in it. All the roads are dirt, but its not bad.

Church was kinda awful. I hate to say it, but if I was an investigator, I would not come back. I guess we have a big ward but the schedule is backwards so sacrament last. It was disorganized, I think the bishop forgot to assign talks and during sacrament kids were literally running around and people kept leaving and coming back, it was wild! But the members are super helpful and take care of us so that's good! And the ward mission leader lives in this fenced in area with like 4 houses and they're all his family so they all help us with teaching and feed us a lot and its awesome!!!

Our house is a different story. It has 3 broken windows so we get a nice breeze, but its super cold down here, in the spring, so thats not so nice. In the night and morning its freezing... for now. We also live with another companionship, Elder Ha, DL from Korea, and Elder I cant spell his name from Peru. He's an ORO, gold, like me for another 3 weeks. Oros are the newbies for 12 weeks till they lose there trainer. But its fun being in the house even though its super dirty and even though were gonna try to clean it today I hear that house never gets clean. Oh and in our "study room" The light doesn't work so at night we have to plan in the kitchen. Down here you dont get a dinner hour because you have lunch with the members so at night were starving!! But all I've had for the past couple days for breakfast and "Dinner" Is eggs bread and rice. There's not an actual store in our area just a couple little markets so were definetely going shopping today!!!

We have 5 fechas, baptism dates, but I don't think any of them will be ready by there dates. Only 2 of those are ones we found but its still awesome to actually have our own investigators!! President Newsome is awesome but I wont really get to know him, unless I end up in the offices some time on my mission. Hes cool though. He and his wife are just super nice. I also found out this is one of the highest baptizing missions so that's cool. Spanish is slowly coming. Very slowly. Its super stressfull!!! And I don't understand nada!! Its so annoying! My comp only speaks spanish. He understands most english and can speak a tiny. The only person I talk to in english is elder ha and i don't see him a lot and he speaks korean english... I love it out here! Its hard and tiring and cold but i love it!!!

Its way cool that cam got a new job! That's exciting!!!! I'm glad you all are doing well and I'm super glad cam is happy right now.  I've been praying a lot for him and all of you guys. Umm. I'm excited for your package. Next package I would like some sticky notes, big and small if you could cuz I don't know if they have them down here. I have to write to the mission president now but I love you all! I'm super glad to know your all doing well and its great to here from you!

Love you all,
Me!!!!!