July 7, 2014
So this week was a great week!!!! We started with an intercambio. I went to another area with Elder Taylore from Idaho. He has about 8 months in the mission and he is a super stud!!! I loved working with him! On Wed when we were in the bus station to come back and this lady came up and gave us a bunch of "biscochos", I don't know how to spell it, they are like this little bread things filled with carmel(dulce de leche) and jam and cheese and they are delicious!!! She wasn't a member, but her brothers served a mission so she wanted to thank us!!! I love being a missionary!!!!
Then Wed., Elder Sims and I found a miracle!!! We were sitting in a members house waiting for him to give us lunch and this less active girl walked in, Steffany. I met Steffany about 6 months ago and hadn't seen her since... But then her little brother came in, Simón, and he's 9 and not baptized. He pretty much asked us to baptize him and he's a super stud!!! Now we just have to activate his mom. His sister is super excited to come back to church!!!! Then the other day we found one of my old investigators, Michael. Michael is super awesome and was gonna get baptized but there was always something lacking in the charlas we had with him, and before Sunday I was still feeling that way. So I was studying for Michael Saturday and figured that he needed to learn about the atonement!!! He didn't come to church on Sunday so we went to his house after and had the charla!!! It was incredible!!! That was one of the very few charlas I have had where I've cried because the Spirit was so strong!!! We talked about the Atonement using Alma 7:11-16 I think and explained it all to him. Then my comp asked how he felt and he bore his testimony about the atonement, then I asked how did he feel inside and he recognized the Spirit and truth of these things!!! It was incredible and I'm super excited to see if he's received his answer about the BoM!
Saturday it rained!!!! It poured in the morning!!!! There was water pouring in through the roof and flooding in from the back door!!! It was crazy, the power even went out for a little bit! It was super fun!!!
Sunday we also talked with Milagros, my recent convert who was super firm then went inactive.... We had a super good charla to see what has been going on and it all started with the famous doubt of, "Why do bad things happen to good people and good things to bad people?" It's a doubt that almost everyone has down here.... Especially,"I'm doing what I should be doing, but why do I still have problems?" We tried to help her but she wants to receive her answer for herself. So we told her that she has to repent and read 2 Nefi 2 and pray about it to receive her answer! I was actually reading it this morning and wow it's an incredible chapter!!! I love studying the gospel and helping people with their doubts and helping everyone receive the blessings of the gospel that I have!!! That sounds like our week!!!!
July 15, 2014
This week has been incredible!!! We got changes last night and we're changing tomorrow!!! I was called to be a District Leader. I'm staying in the zone, but I'm going to an area called Chuy... Part of the area is in Brazil and everything there is super cheap!!! They have American candy and electronics and everything just cheaper than dirt! The bad thing is it's a 4 hour bus ride from Chuy to 33 and then a 4 hour bus ride from 33 to the mission home in Montevideo... I'm super excited and humbled to serve the Lord in this calling! I didn't know how I would feel the day I got this calling, now i know, Stressed!! I'm super excited, but super nervous! I know it's a big responsibility and I start tomorrow! Thurs I get to do my 1st 2 baptismal interviews and Friday my first District Meeting! My new comp is Elder Cary... He's from Peru, this is going to be his 3rd change so he just got done being trained! My mission is just full of Peruanos, 1st comp- Peru, 2-States, 3-Peru, 4- States, 5-Peru, 6-States, 7- Peru!!!! I hope my Spanish gets super good this change!!!!
Our investigators are doing good!! Simon's mom doesn't think he's ready to get baptized, which we know, so there is a little bit of work to do there and for some reason, Michael didn't go to church.... Elder Sims is going to talk with him tomorrow!!
Tomorrow is going to be crazy!!! I have to go to Montevideo at 6, 4.5 hour bus ride. Then we're going to leave at like 2 or 3, and I'm gonna get home at like 11 or 12!! I' excited for the challenge!!!
That was our week this week!!!
I should know if I got your package tomorrow! Thank you so much for the advice!! That really is going to help in the future to remember that!!!! I want a picture of everyone if you can send it!!! I'm scared to see a pic of Clara, especially if she starts playing sports!!! That's good, I'll have time to turn Ethan into a missionary before he even leaves!!!! That's cool that they are having some good activities!! I hope your guys dr. appointments go well!!! I have a lot of people to pray for, my district, my comp, my investigators, leaders, converts and you guys, but lets just say it's all worth it! I have some seen miracles happening here and at home for my prayers. I was reading DC 31 the other day and it talks about the Lord taking care of you guys while I'm here and I can definetely see it! You would adopt to many kids (IF I became a social worker), my suggestion would just be to pray, study your patriarchal blessing and maybe fast if you need help making a decision. I'm excited for you guys and sounds like you guys are enjoying those fruit trees without me!!! That's sweet about Cam (getting ANOTHER raise), what a stud!!! Love you guys tons and thanks for the email!!!!!
--
Love,
Elder Oliver
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Monday, June 23, 2014
Becoming a senior companion...
June 16, 2014
Thanks for the birthday wishes!!!
So tomorrow I am going to have another new companion. Elder De Lama is going to reopen an area that was closed a couple months ago for his last week! He is going to live in our house still, until they find one there, so he has to travel 1 hour just to get to his area every day..... I am going to stay in the same area with Elder Sims, I think he has like 6 months or so in the mission!! I'm super excited to help him develop as a missionary and I'm sure we're gonna go baptize the world!!! It's gonna be crazy for a while because we are going to have 6 missionaries in a house of 4, but some how we're gonna make it work!!
We haven't had a lot of contact with the peoiple we have been teaching because it seems that they are just never home, but this week we are gonna have the whole week to work and it's gonna be great!!! We have 1 investigator that could be getting baptized in the next 2 weeks. His name is Francisco. He is 79 years old and let's just say he likes talking, a lot.... He is a great guy, but he is very difficult to teach... He feels like he knows everything that we are trying to teach him, so that's our biggest problem with him, but we'll get there.
We had the oppurtunity to listen to Elder Cabrera, a 70, and Pres Lyn G. Robins, Presidency of the 70, this week!!! It was incredible. Pres Robins started off by talking about the Spirit and how we don't convert the people, but the spirit does, so we need to make sure we are teaching by the spirit! Then he left the time to answer any question and well he only had time to answer 3 questions, but it was incredible how much knowledge he has!!!! It really makes me want to just soak in talks from the church and scriptures!!!! One day I hope to be at that level that I can answer all types of question using the scriptures!!! We also had the interviews with Pres and it was incredible to see how much he cares for us!!!
Over all this week I think I learned that even when we don't feel the Spirit, it is there with us!!! We just have to learn how to recognize it and when it leaves us, so we can change our actions! This week we are going to see miracles and thanks for everything!!!!
Love you all and thanks for all you do!!!!
--
Love,
Elder Oliver
My new companion is funny :) and a testimony!
June 23, 2014
Thanks for the birthday wishes!!! It went great! We played some sports in the church and then on Tues the Hermanas in our district brought some delicious brownies so it was a pretty good birthday!!! I can finally leave on the mission now..... that's crazy!!! I haven't gotten my packages yet, but I should tonight so I'm super excited!!!
Elder Sims is super awesome!!!! He's 18 years old and lived in West Jordan moved to Bluffdale and then moved back to West Jordan!!! Pretty crazy right!! We actually have some friends in common! He is super funny and super awesome!!! It helps to have a comp that has a ton of comedy acts from Brian Regan, Bill Cosby, Dane Cook and others memorized!!! He has 6 months in the mission so he is still working on his confidence a little bit, but heck, by the end of this change he'll be able to train if he needs to!! He's a great guy! Luckily the other guys moved out of the house so it's just the 4 of us again!!!
Francisco is being a little rough... He kind of does remind me of Dad. I really love him, but he talks a ton and thinks he knows everything so it's super hard to teach him... He also didn't go to church this week so we're gonna fix that! We have some good plans to use a ton of members with him and watch a lot of movies so he'll stop talking!!!
It was interesting, Sunday the members opened up to me more!!! Maybe it's because I've live in this ward for 6 months,,,, longer than I lived in wards in the states, maybe it's because I was a lot happier??? or maybe it's because they finally realized that I have stayed here and have had 3 comps leave, but I'm super excited to work with the members more! That was our week!!!! Love you all and thanks!!!
Also, things I have learned this week is the Spirit is always there, we just have to recognize it!!!! I really learned that as I read the BoM I need a question on a paper, in my study journal, and I need to write down all of my impressions, if I don't write down and follow the impressions of the Lord, why is he gonna give me more???? So I have really have been doing that this week and I don't think I have felt the Spirit more, but I surely have recognized a lot more impressions!!! Also, this week I trulty have recognized the importance of the BoM, I was actually just reading this talk this morning and it was incredible!!!!!
https://www.lds.org/ensign/1986/11/the-book-of-mormon-keystone-of-our-religion
I especially liked the quote from Pres Marion G. Romney,
“I feel certain that if, in our homes, parents will read from the Book of Mormon prayerfully and regularly, both by themselves and with their children, the spirit of that great book will come to permeate our homes and all who dwell therein. The spirit of reverence will increase; mutual respect and consideration for each other will grow. The spirit of contention will depart. Parents will counsel their children in greater love and wisdom. Children will be more responsive and submissive to the counsel of their parents. Righteousness will increase. Faith, hope, and charity—the pure love of Christ—will abound in our homes and lives,bringing in their wake peace, joy, and happiness” (Ensign, May 1980, p.67).
I have a strong testimony of the BoM and I would like to invite all of you to read it, ponder and pray about it like it says in Moroni 10:3-5!!!! "Just do it" once a famous quote by Nike!!! If you have that testimony of the BoM it will strengthen it!!!! If you lack that testimony you will receive it!!! I don't think I did this challenge until the mission and then my answer came to me the first time I testified about this book! I hope you all can learn of the importance of the BoM like I have and like Pres Benson exhorts!!! That's my missionary rant for the day!
Thanks for the email mom!!! It's sad, but Elder _____ mom doesn't really ever write him anything so I'm super happy I always had a letter from you!! It helps me out a ton!! I'm glad you guys are all doing good and moving soon!!! You guys are doing some exciting things!!!! Send me some current pics and some pics of the house when you can!!!! Love you guys!!!!!
Thanks for the birthday wishes!!!
So tomorrow I am going to have another new companion. Elder De Lama is going to reopen an area that was closed a couple months ago for his last week! He is going to live in our house still, until they find one there, so he has to travel 1 hour just to get to his area every day..... I am going to stay in the same area with Elder Sims, I think he has like 6 months or so in the mission!! I'm super excited to help him develop as a missionary and I'm sure we're gonna go baptize the world!!! It's gonna be crazy for a while because we are going to have 6 missionaries in a house of 4, but some how we're gonna make it work!!
We haven't had a lot of contact with the peoiple we have been teaching because it seems that they are just never home, but this week we are gonna have the whole week to work and it's gonna be great!!! We have 1 investigator that could be getting baptized in the next 2 weeks. His name is Francisco. He is 79 years old and let's just say he likes talking, a lot.... He is a great guy, but he is very difficult to teach... He feels like he knows everything that we are trying to teach him, so that's our biggest problem with him, but we'll get there.
We had the oppurtunity to listen to Elder Cabrera, a 70, and Pres Lyn G. Robins, Presidency of the 70, this week!!! It was incredible. Pres Robins started off by talking about the Spirit and how we don't convert the people, but the spirit does, so we need to make sure we are teaching by the spirit! Then he left the time to answer any question and well he only had time to answer 3 questions, but it was incredible how much knowledge he has!!!! It really makes me want to just soak in talks from the church and scriptures!!!! One day I hope to be at that level that I can answer all types of question using the scriptures!!! We also had the interviews with Pres and it was incredible to see how much he cares for us!!!
Over all this week I think I learned that even when we don't feel the Spirit, it is there with us!!! We just have to learn how to recognize it and when it leaves us, so we can change our actions! This week we are going to see miracles and thanks for everything!!!!
Love you all and thanks for all you do!!!!
--
Love,
Elder Oliver
My new companion is funny :) and a testimony!
June 23, 2014
Thanks for the birthday wishes!!! It went great! We played some sports in the church and then on Tues the Hermanas in our district brought some delicious brownies so it was a pretty good birthday!!! I can finally leave on the mission now..... that's crazy!!! I haven't gotten my packages yet, but I should tonight so I'm super excited!!!
Elder Sims is super awesome!!!! He's 18 years old and lived in West Jordan moved to Bluffdale and then moved back to West Jordan!!! Pretty crazy right!! We actually have some friends in common! He is super funny and super awesome!!! It helps to have a comp that has a ton of comedy acts from Brian Regan, Bill Cosby, Dane Cook and others memorized!!! He has 6 months in the mission so he is still working on his confidence a little bit, but heck, by the end of this change he'll be able to train if he needs to!! He's a great guy! Luckily the other guys moved out of the house so it's just the 4 of us again!!!
Francisco is being a little rough... He kind of does remind me of Dad. I really love him, but he talks a ton and thinks he knows everything so it's super hard to teach him... He also didn't go to church this week so we're gonna fix that! We have some good plans to use a ton of members with him and watch a lot of movies so he'll stop talking!!!
It was interesting, Sunday the members opened up to me more!!! Maybe it's because I've live in this ward for 6 months,,,, longer than I lived in wards in the states, maybe it's because I was a lot happier??? or maybe it's because they finally realized that I have stayed here and have had 3 comps leave, but I'm super excited to work with the members more! That was our week!!!! Love you all and thanks!!!
Also, things I have learned this week is the Spirit is always there, we just have to recognize it!!!! I really learned that as I read the BoM I need a question on a paper, in my study journal, and I need to write down all of my impressions, if I don't write down and follow the impressions of the Lord, why is he gonna give me more???? So I have really have been doing that this week and I don't think I have felt the Spirit more, but I surely have recognized a lot more impressions!!! Also, this week I trulty have recognized the importance of the BoM, I was actually just reading this talk this morning and it was incredible!!!!!
https://www.lds.org/ensign/1986/11/the-book-of-mormon-keystone-of-our-religion
I especially liked the quote from Pres Marion G. Romney,
“I feel certain that if, in our homes, parents will read from the Book of Mormon prayerfully and regularly, both by themselves and with their children, the spirit of that great book will come to permeate our homes and all who dwell therein. The spirit of reverence will increase; mutual respect and consideration for each other will grow. The spirit of contention will depart. Parents will counsel their children in greater love and wisdom. Children will be more responsive and submissive to the counsel of their parents. Righteousness will increase. Faith, hope, and charity—the pure love of Christ—will abound in our homes and lives,bringing in their wake peace, joy, and happiness” (Ensign, May 1980, p.67).
I have a strong testimony of the BoM and I would like to invite all of you to read it, ponder and pray about it like it says in Moroni 10:3-5!!!! "Just do it" once a famous quote by Nike!!! If you have that testimony of the BoM it will strengthen it!!!! If you lack that testimony you will receive it!!! I don't think I did this challenge until the mission and then my answer came to me the first time I testified about this book! I hope you all can learn of the importance of the BoM like I have and like Pres Benson exhorts!!! That's my missionary rant for the day!
Thanks for the email mom!!! It's sad, but Elder _____ mom doesn't really ever write him anything so I'm super happy I always had a letter from you!! It helps me out a ton!! I'm glad you guys are all doing good and moving soon!!! You guys are doing some exciting things!!!! Send me some current pics and some pics of the house when you can!!!! Love you guys!!!!!
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
A lot of catch up from Mom!!!!
April 29, 2014
Hey everyone!!! Right now I am living with my comp, Elder Pike from SLC, UT, Elder Lacey who's family moved to Alpine, UT and Elder Bastidas from Lima, Peru. Unfortunately Jefferson didn't go to church this week. It's hard to teach him with his friends around, they're definitely not that great of influences on him... Other than that this week went really well. We had a great week and so did the whole district so that is super awesome!!! The worst part of this week is that I've had this cold going on for a bit, but it's starting to go away!!! The best meal we had would be these grilled cheese and ham sandwiches we made when we didn't have lunch. And I would say the worst was this churrizo stuff we get ever week... It literally goes straight into the trash. I could understand if the people didn't have money, but they own a meat shop, I think they just give us what they can't sell. We've been trying a lot to get the ward helping us out some more, but it's kind of hard. Unfortunately, our bishop works a ton and can't really do anything until he gets a new job or is transferred. He's hoping that it'll happen this month!!! It's been kind of annoying weather because it's hot during the day. but when the sun goes down at like 6:30 it gets really cold!!!
That's pretty much my week!!!
That's exciting that you're starting physical therapy this week, I hope that goes well! Dad wrote me, so I know that his coughing was a little bit more than bronchitis, so I'll make sure that I keep him in my prayers!!!! I'm super excited to talk to you guys on mother's day!!! I'll make sure to let you guys know next week when we can do it because Pres is gonna let us know the rules he's gonna put today, but I'm really excited that Cam is gonna be there!!! LOVE YOU GUYS TONS!!!!
I was just thinking about a couple of things I might be needing in the next package and I was thinking:
G2 pens, but .5 and smaller
a couple of Scarfs
Thats all I've got for now!
May 5, 2014
Alrighty then! This week has been pretty great!!! We were able to see a lot of success as we went out and worked this week! Actually this week our whole district, even our whole zone had a lot of success this week! The weather is being really annoying this week, it's been really hot during the day and sometimes it's warm at night and sometimes it's cold at night, but it definitely is getting colder! I don't know how well I prepared for this winter, but I guess we'll find out! The lunches this week were a lot better! We got Milanesas about 3 times this week and those are awesome!!! Unfortunately, every Tues the same family gives us the same nasty food because they can't sell it in their meat place.... But this week we have food every day!!!!! And we didn't even have to do anything!!! We occasionally visit this member who is awesome!!! He used to be the branch pres and his daughter is on a mission right now, so this week he filled up our lunch calendar for the next 2 weeks!!!!! HE is probably one of the only people who are really helping us right now in this ward. It's kind of difficult with the ward right now because our bishopric is kind of absent, but I have a feeling that is going to change soon. Either we're getting a new bishop. or our bishop is going to get a new job so that he'll be able to help the ward!!! Oh, we got to go on splits with the Stake Pres this week and I had the opportunity to go visit a less active family with him! He is a capo!!! He's a return missionary that served in Colombia and he is just awesome!!! The lesson we had with them was just so spiritual and it was incredible how he just told them exactly what the 70 had told him to do with less active families and the love he had for them!!! I learned a lot in that charla! I also learned that stake presidents are really busy people, always meeting with 70's and always having meetings!!!! It was a sweet experience!!! This week unfortunately only Jefferson came to church, but that means he is going to be baptized this Sat!!!! The biggest challenge we are facing right now is that our investigators are never home when they say they're going to be home, but we're starting to do a little better with that!! Thank you for all that you guys do for me!!! Love you all!!!!
That's good that E's doing so much for you guys!!!! Poor Brig, everyone has a bad lesson every once in a while!!! Even we do as missionaries! That's exciting that you guys may be getting new callings!!! Let me know how he's doing!!!! And I hope that you're physical therapy goes well!!! CAN YOU TRY TO FIND MY SKYPE INFO AND SEND IT TO ME!!!!! I was thinking that I will Skype at 3 pm Uruguay time. We only get 40 mins this time! Glad you guys are doing well, well except for Dad, but he's always sick, he'll get better!!! Love you tons!!!
May 12, 2014 Funky Muffins :)
Well we just talked yesterday so this week is gonna be pretty short... I did forget to tell you that on Thurs in the morning, they cut the lights in the whole city from 10-12, well, this is when we do our weekly planning, so we had to plan using candles!!! It was actually really fun, a little distracting because we were playing with the wax and maybe burning some things but it was cool. It really makes me appreciate having electricity! This week was really awesome though! We've really been feeling the Spirit a lot in our lessons and we've been working really really well together! This is gonna be a really good week as well!! For those who don't know, Jeferrson got baptized this week and it was super awesome experience!!! Oh also the Pepsi-Oreo-Dulce de Leche cake was delicious! This morning we made it with Guarana soda and lemon!!! It's so good!!! Thanks for everything and love you all!
A couple things that I forgot.
1, if you can send 17 Miracles that would be awesome, we can watch it in the mission!
2, If you could send Uncle Ryans email that would be super awesome!
3, If you could keep looking for Dad's journal that would be the best!!!
Oh also there was a song that I listened to this morning, it's super super sad and you'll probably cry, but the ending is super awesome!!! It's called "The Little Girl" I'm not sure who it's by, but it's great!
Muffin Recipe: Don't hate on the Pepsi Oreo muffin recipe
3 cups of flour
1 cup of sugar
3 spoons of baking powder
1/2 spoon of salt
3 eggs
2 spoons of oil
milk (or whatever, we used Pepsi)
You can also add whatever inside like Oreos (Oreo and Pepsi is delicious)
Cook it for who nows how long, like 11 mins, at like 265 deg. celcius, something like that
Then we put Dulce de Leche on top (Kind of Carmel)
May 19, 2014
This week was a little bit difficult. Looking at the numbers, it's actually pretty terrible. We weren't as focused as we could've been, but luckily we had a conference with Pres Cook this week and that got us pumped up to work!!! We may not have seen good numbers, but we saw some incredible progression with a couple of investigators!!! Unfortunately none of them came to church, something we are working a ton on this week, well actually we had one come to church, but the main entrance is in a weird place at our church so he got confused and left..... but we're going to have a family home evening in the church Wednesday with some members and we're working to have him there so he can get to know the church!!! The members are being a lot more helpful lately!!! The stake pres has started something that the prophet is telling everyone to do which is start leaving with the bishops, missionaries and the members!!! We had a good turnout to do that this week!!! Its really helping the less actives, but its also really helping animate the members and the bishop!! When we start to feel the joy of missionary work and the atonement in our lives we just want to share it with everyone!! Our bishop is working a lot harder now and doing some incredible things in the ward!!! That was pretty much the week! Thanks for all your support!!!
That's awesome that Dad is doing a little better!! It's rough that he's stuck in the house! I'm sure that's rough on him! But That really strengthens my testimony that Heavenly Father is answering our prayers!!! If you guys moved back to Saratoga Springs that would be pretty cool!!!Also I need ideas that we can use for activities for the youth and family home evenings!!!!
Love you tons thanks for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
--
May 26, 2014
Hey everybody. This week was a good week!!! It was a lot of walking, but it was still a good week! The members in our ward are helping us out a lot more now!!! Also our bishop is helping out and getting involved in the ward as well! We have this one investigator that we are really working with right now named Angelica. She comes from definitely a different background and I'm not gonna lie, I was skeptical about knocking her door, but we knew that her husband was a member so we knocked anyways. That was a great decision! Her husband is less active, but he seems to be fine with coming back and their kids love us!!! Bryan is 7 and Esmerelda is 6 I think!!! They're a little bit rowdy, but they're incredible!!!! Angelica has a true desire to stop smoking and follow God's commandments, including baptism!!! We have some great plans to work this week and I'm sure we are going to see many miracles!!! We had a stake priesthood conference and it was really awesome to be in a room with that many priesthood holders and just learn how we can become better! Also, this week on Thurs Pres Gonzalez from the Pres. of the 70 is coming down to talk to us!!! I'm super excited!!!! He's also going to be checking the cleanliness of all the houses, so we've got some cleaning to do! Love you all and thanks for all of your prayers!!!!
I've learned to get over things fast in the mission with all the rejections we get, what are you gonna do? It's their choice. The only choice we have is if we are going to be brought down and mad and sad for other peoples actions. Why should we ruin our day, week, month for things we can't control.... I'll definitely be praying for you and for mom!!!
A quote I just got about the priesthood! Love it!!!
“Let my assure you, Brethren, that some day you will have a personal Priesthood interview with the Savior, Himself. If you are interested, I will tell you the order in which He will ask you to account for your earthly responsibilities.
First, He will request an accountability report about your relationship with your wife. Have you actively been engaged in making her happy and ensuring that her needs have been met as an individual?
Second, He will want an accountability report about each of your children individually. He will not attempt to have this for simply a family stewardship but will request information about your relationship to each and every child.
Third, He will want to know what you personally have done with the talents you were given in the pre-existence.
Fourth, He will want a summary of your activity in your church assignments. He will not be necessarily interested in what assignments you have had, for in his eyes the home teacher and a mission president are probably equals, but He will request a summary of how you have been of service to your fellowmen in your Church assignments.
Fifth, He will have no interest in how you earned your living, but if you were honest in all your dealings.
Sixth, He will ask for an accountability on what you have done to contribute in a positive manner to your community, state, country, and the world.”
― David O. McKay
June 3, 2014
This week was a week of miracles!!! We first got a reference from an awesome lady in the ward and she wanted to help us baptize this family so bad!!!! We ended up going to their house with her on Monday and we had a great lesson with them!!!! Funny thing is, the mom had rejected us before, but when we went with Hna Gomez, she accepted us in a heart beat!!! When Hna Gomez got home she was so excited and happy that they had listened to us!!! Unfortunately, it's not that easy..... We went back with the Hna on Wed and they had read the folleto (pamphlet I think) but they weren't interested.... they were to comfortable with the church that they had.... but that's ok because we planted the seed there to be harvested by some other missionaries! Then we also found another miracle this week and her name is Dahiana! Dahiana is a friend of a recent convert of the zone leaders! Dahiana has got to church 3 times already to church, in a row, and to the baptism of Antonella, her friend!!! She is incredible!!! She's about 25ish and she has the most adorable daughter in the world!!!! Her name is Abril, she's 1.5 years old!!! Cutest little girl ever, but anyway, Dahiana is incredible and has a true desire to learn the truth!!! The biggest problems we have with her is 1. she isn't married.... biggest problem we have as missionaries I think. 2. She doesn't have a lot of time 3. We have to get her to come to our ward and not go with her friend, that won't be to hard though!!! She is definitely going to get baptized, as soon as she gets married!! We've also been getting a lot more help from our bishop!!! He hasn't had a lot of time to work, but he is doing everything he can to help us!!! He's awesome!! Oh, we received changes.... I'm staying for my 5th change in this area.... that's 7.5 months..... That's a really long time for missionaries!!!! I was kind of upset, but this change is gonna be great!! I'm super excited!!! I'll be with an Elder Western, I'm not sure who he is, but I'm stoked!!!! Jefferson, our 10 year old convert, is doing fantastic!!! He's already in Alma!!!! And he's been reading the whole thing with his Mom, who isn't baptized yet, but sure will be soon!! We have this investigator Fransisco, very old, but very awesome!!! He also has a lot of potential!!! The biggest problem we have with him is he just talks so much!!! It's hard to get a lesson in, but he's very smart, nice and humble!!! That's about my week, but I love you all and thanks for all your prayers!!!
There's nothing that we can do except be the examples!!! I've been praying that Dad gets better latley so I hope all these studies and changes will really help him! That's super exciiting about the new house and specially the new ward!!!! Now here's the real question... are there any sister missionaries from that ward serving right now???? No I'm just kidding!!! I've got another 14 months left on the mission before I can start thinking about all that stuff. I'm really excited for you guys though and that's so cool about Cam's job and that he'll be a Crowe!!!! You never would've saw that coming when you guys first got married!!! I really am happy about that!!! It's been incredible, and difficult, but mostly incredible to have had 2 great Dads, both very different, help us to grow and progress in this life! Thanks for the letter Mom!!! Love you guys tons!!!
June 9, 2014
First of all, something a little crazy, my comp isn't Elder Western, It's Elder De Lama! He's another Peruvian!!! He only has 3 weeks left in the mission :( so I will have a special change soon, but I'm learning so much from him! He was a district leader for 4 changes and a zone leader for 6, so more than half his mission he has had experience as a leader and it's incredible how much I'm going to learn in 3 short weeks!!!! I'm very excited and I've realized how blessed I've been with my awesome comps that I have had, every single one has been a great leader. This change Elder Pike got put as a zone leader!!!! Oh and the other 2 missionaries in my house are the same! I'm excited. It is a little difficult here to find people that are married! They either don't see the importance or they don't have the money. It's kind of a long process and it's hard to get all the documents needed. People usually don't even have birth certificates for them or their kids.... Jefferson is doing good, but we haven't had a whole lot of contact with him or with his mom so we need to get a good charla with them! We are still getting fed well! This week has been a lot colder in the morning and at night, but still during the day it's normally warmish, so you're always putting on and taking off your jacket. This week we found a friend of Milagros, her name is Lucia and she's 15 years old. She is super awesome and very smart! The biggest problem we have with her is that her parents don't want her to be baptized, but that's because we haven't talked with them yet!!! This week we lost a lot of time to work, but this week is going to be better, even though we're going to lose more time... We have a conference/interviews with Pres on Wed and Thurs we have to travel 4 hours to Montevideo because we have a combined conference with the other mission and a 70 from the Pres of the 70. That sounds like our week!!!!
That's awesome!!! He'll get there, it'll probably be better so that he doesn't break himself during the move!!! That would be awesome if Uncle Ryan moved to Utah with all of us!!! That'll be super good for Clara and Ethan!!! Vamos Arriba!!! That's really cool about Cam!!! I'm super excited about him getting married too!!! Brig is definitely gonna find something in Orem... It's home of the genius mormons and all the boy scout clubs, he'll be able to find a great robotics club and some great friends!!! That's super cool that he's building his own computer, what a genius!!!
I definitely will pray for you guys and I'll send Ethan a letter, make sure he reads it. He really doesn't need to worry about the mission because I'm gonna get home and pound this stuff into his head!!! Something good would be if he really studied Preach my Gospel, or even as a family!!! Especially in chapter 3, it has all the lessons!!! Plus he can ask for the pamphlets from the missionaries, that would be great and simple. Honestly, I got to the mission and didn't know very much at all, but you learn so fast!!! There are missionaries who come in the mission and literally know NOTHING, but they get it done!!! Thanks for the letter and love you all tons!!!!!!! Oh and something that would be awesome is to do Family home evenings with the missionaries!!!! Ask them to prepare a lesson and activity and you guys the treats!!! There's a family in the other wars that does family home evenings every Sunday and all members, converts, less actives and investigators are invited, it's really helped their family and some investigators!!!!
Last thing is I have really learned the importance, from my mission pres and the stake pres, of the importance of family home evening, daily scripture study as a family and nightly prayer as a family!!! I really hope you guys could start doing all that, even if it's just for a short time every night!!!!!
--
Love,
Elder Oliver
Hey everyone!!! Right now I am living with my comp, Elder Pike from SLC, UT, Elder Lacey who's family moved to Alpine, UT and Elder Bastidas from Lima, Peru. Unfortunately Jefferson didn't go to church this week. It's hard to teach him with his friends around, they're definitely not that great of influences on him... Other than that this week went really well. We had a great week and so did the whole district so that is super awesome!!! The worst part of this week is that I've had this cold going on for a bit, but it's starting to go away!!! The best meal we had would be these grilled cheese and ham sandwiches we made when we didn't have lunch. And I would say the worst was this churrizo stuff we get ever week... It literally goes straight into the trash. I could understand if the people didn't have money, but they own a meat shop, I think they just give us what they can't sell. We've been trying a lot to get the ward helping us out some more, but it's kind of hard. Unfortunately, our bishop works a ton and can't really do anything until he gets a new job or is transferred. He's hoping that it'll happen this month!!! It's been kind of annoying weather because it's hot during the day. but when the sun goes down at like 6:30 it gets really cold!!!
That's pretty much my week!!!
That's exciting that you're starting physical therapy this week, I hope that goes well! Dad wrote me, so I know that his coughing was a little bit more than bronchitis, so I'll make sure that I keep him in my prayers!!!! I'm super excited to talk to you guys on mother's day!!! I'll make sure to let you guys know next week when we can do it because Pres is gonna let us know the rules he's gonna put today, but I'm really excited that Cam is gonna be there!!! LOVE YOU GUYS TONS!!!!
I was just thinking about a couple of things I might be needing in the next package and I was thinking:
G2 pens, but .5 and smaller
a couple of Scarfs
Thats all I've got for now!
May 5, 2014
Alrighty then! This week has been pretty great!!! We were able to see a lot of success as we went out and worked this week! Actually this week our whole district, even our whole zone had a lot of success this week! The weather is being really annoying this week, it's been really hot during the day and sometimes it's warm at night and sometimes it's cold at night, but it definitely is getting colder! I don't know how well I prepared for this winter, but I guess we'll find out! The lunches this week were a lot better! We got Milanesas about 3 times this week and those are awesome!!! Unfortunately, every Tues the same family gives us the same nasty food because they can't sell it in their meat place.... But this week we have food every day!!!!! And we didn't even have to do anything!!! We occasionally visit this member who is awesome!!! He used to be the branch pres and his daughter is on a mission right now, so this week he filled up our lunch calendar for the next 2 weeks!!!!! HE is probably one of the only people who are really helping us right now in this ward. It's kind of difficult with the ward right now because our bishopric is kind of absent, but I have a feeling that is going to change soon. Either we're getting a new bishop. or our bishop is going to get a new job so that he'll be able to help the ward!!! Oh, we got to go on splits with the Stake Pres this week and I had the opportunity to go visit a less active family with him! He is a capo!!! He's a return missionary that served in Colombia and he is just awesome!!! The lesson we had with them was just so spiritual and it was incredible how he just told them exactly what the 70 had told him to do with less active families and the love he had for them!!! I learned a lot in that charla! I also learned that stake presidents are really busy people, always meeting with 70's and always having meetings!!!! It was a sweet experience!!! This week unfortunately only Jefferson came to church, but that means he is going to be baptized this Sat!!!! The biggest challenge we are facing right now is that our investigators are never home when they say they're going to be home, but we're starting to do a little better with that!! Thank you for all that you guys do for me!!! Love you all!!!!
That's good that E's doing so much for you guys!!!! Poor Brig, everyone has a bad lesson every once in a while!!! Even we do as missionaries! That's exciting that you guys may be getting new callings!!! Let me know how he's doing!!!! And I hope that you're physical therapy goes well!!! CAN YOU TRY TO FIND MY SKYPE INFO AND SEND IT TO ME!!!!! I was thinking that I will Skype at 3 pm Uruguay time. We only get 40 mins this time! Glad you guys are doing well, well except for Dad, but he's always sick, he'll get better!!! Love you tons!!!
May 12, 2014 Funky Muffins :)
Well we just talked yesterday so this week is gonna be pretty short... I did forget to tell you that on Thurs in the morning, they cut the lights in the whole city from 10-12, well, this is when we do our weekly planning, so we had to plan using candles!!! It was actually really fun, a little distracting because we were playing with the wax and maybe burning some things but it was cool. It really makes me appreciate having electricity! This week was really awesome though! We've really been feeling the Spirit a lot in our lessons and we've been working really really well together! This is gonna be a really good week as well!! For those who don't know, Jeferrson got baptized this week and it was super awesome experience!!! Oh also the Pepsi-Oreo-Dulce de Leche cake was delicious! This morning we made it with Guarana soda and lemon!!! It's so good!!! Thanks for everything and love you all!
A couple things that I forgot.
1, if you can send 17 Miracles that would be awesome, we can watch it in the mission!
2, If you could send Uncle Ryans email that would be super awesome!
3, If you could keep looking for Dad's journal that would be the best!!!
Oh also there was a song that I listened to this morning, it's super super sad and you'll probably cry, but the ending is super awesome!!! It's called "The Little Girl" I'm not sure who it's by, but it's great!
Muffin Recipe: Don't hate on the Pepsi Oreo muffin recipe
3 cups of flour
1 cup of sugar
3 spoons of baking powder
1/2 spoon of salt
3 eggs
2 spoons of oil
milk (or whatever, we used Pepsi)
You can also add whatever inside like Oreos (Oreo and Pepsi is delicious)
Cook it for who nows how long, like 11 mins, at like 265 deg. celcius, something like that
Then we put Dulce de Leche on top (Kind of Carmel)
May 19, 2014
This week was a little bit difficult. Looking at the numbers, it's actually pretty terrible. We weren't as focused as we could've been, but luckily we had a conference with Pres Cook this week and that got us pumped up to work!!! We may not have seen good numbers, but we saw some incredible progression with a couple of investigators!!! Unfortunately none of them came to church, something we are working a ton on this week, well actually we had one come to church, but the main entrance is in a weird place at our church so he got confused and left..... but we're going to have a family home evening in the church Wednesday with some members and we're working to have him there so he can get to know the church!!! The members are being a lot more helpful lately!!! The stake pres has started something that the prophet is telling everyone to do which is start leaving with the bishops, missionaries and the members!!! We had a good turnout to do that this week!!! Its really helping the less actives, but its also really helping animate the members and the bishop!! When we start to feel the joy of missionary work and the atonement in our lives we just want to share it with everyone!! Our bishop is working a lot harder now and doing some incredible things in the ward!!! That was pretty much the week! Thanks for all your support!!!
That's awesome that Dad is doing a little better!! It's rough that he's stuck in the house! I'm sure that's rough on him! But That really strengthens my testimony that Heavenly Father is answering our prayers!!! If you guys moved back to Saratoga Springs that would be pretty cool!!!Also I need ideas that we can use for activities for the youth and family home evenings!!!!
Love you tons thanks for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
--
May 26, 2014
Hey everybody. This week was a good week!!! It was a lot of walking, but it was still a good week! The members in our ward are helping us out a lot more now!!! Also our bishop is helping out and getting involved in the ward as well! We have this one investigator that we are really working with right now named Angelica. She comes from definitely a different background and I'm not gonna lie, I was skeptical about knocking her door, but we knew that her husband was a member so we knocked anyways. That was a great decision! Her husband is less active, but he seems to be fine with coming back and their kids love us!!! Bryan is 7 and Esmerelda is 6 I think!!! They're a little bit rowdy, but they're incredible!!!! Angelica has a true desire to stop smoking and follow God's commandments, including baptism!!! We have some great plans to work this week and I'm sure we are going to see many miracles!!! We had a stake priesthood conference and it was really awesome to be in a room with that many priesthood holders and just learn how we can become better! Also, this week on Thurs Pres Gonzalez from the Pres. of the 70 is coming down to talk to us!!! I'm super excited!!!! He's also going to be checking the cleanliness of all the houses, so we've got some cleaning to do! Love you all and thanks for all of your prayers!!!!
I've learned to get over things fast in the mission with all the rejections we get, what are you gonna do? It's their choice. The only choice we have is if we are going to be brought down and mad and sad for other peoples actions. Why should we ruin our day, week, month for things we can't control.... I'll definitely be praying for you and for mom!!!
A quote I just got about the priesthood! Love it!!!
“Let my assure you, Brethren, that some day you will have a personal Priesthood interview with the Savior, Himself. If you are interested, I will tell you the order in which He will ask you to account for your earthly responsibilities.
First, He will request an accountability report about your relationship with your wife. Have you actively been engaged in making her happy and ensuring that her needs have been met as an individual?
Second, He will want an accountability report about each of your children individually. He will not attempt to have this for simply a family stewardship but will request information about your relationship to each and every child.
Third, He will want to know what you personally have done with the talents you were given in the pre-existence.
Fourth, He will want a summary of your activity in your church assignments. He will not be necessarily interested in what assignments you have had, for in his eyes the home teacher and a mission president are probably equals, but He will request a summary of how you have been of service to your fellowmen in your Church assignments.
Fifth, He will have no interest in how you earned your living, but if you were honest in all your dealings.
Sixth, He will ask for an accountability on what you have done to contribute in a positive manner to your community, state, country, and the world.”
― David O. McKay
June 3, 2014
This week was a week of miracles!!! We first got a reference from an awesome lady in the ward and she wanted to help us baptize this family so bad!!!! We ended up going to their house with her on Monday and we had a great lesson with them!!!! Funny thing is, the mom had rejected us before, but when we went with Hna Gomez, she accepted us in a heart beat!!! When Hna Gomez got home she was so excited and happy that they had listened to us!!! Unfortunately, it's not that easy..... We went back with the Hna on Wed and they had read the folleto (pamphlet I think) but they weren't interested.... they were to comfortable with the church that they had.... but that's ok because we planted the seed there to be harvested by some other missionaries! Then we also found another miracle this week and her name is Dahiana! Dahiana is a friend of a recent convert of the zone leaders! Dahiana has got to church 3 times already to church, in a row, and to the baptism of Antonella, her friend!!! She is incredible!!! She's about 25ish and she has the most adorable daughter in the world!!!! Her name is Abril, she's 1.5 years old!!! Cutest little girl ever, but anyway, Dahiana is incredible and has a true desire to learn the truth!!! The biggest problems we have with her is 1. she isn't married.... biggest problem we have as missionaries I think. 2. She doesn't have a lot of time 3. We have to get her to come to our ward and not go with her friend, that won't be to hard though!!! She is definitely going to get baptized, as soon as she gets married!! We've also been getting a lot more help from our bishop!!! He hasn't had a lot of time to work, but he is doing everything he can to help us!!! He's awesome!! Oh, we received changes.... I'm staying for my 5th change in this area.... that's 7.5 months..... That's a really long time for missionaries!!!! I was kind of upset, but this change is gonna be great!! I'm super excited!!! I'll be with an Elder Western, I'm not sure who he is, but I'm stoked!!!! Jefferson, our 10 year old convert, is doing fantastic!!! He's already in Alma!!!! And he's been reading the whole thing with his Mom, who isn't baptized yet, but sure will be soon!! We have this investigator Fransisco, very old, but very awesome!!! He also has a lot of potential!!! The biggest problem we have with him is he just talks so much!!! It's hard to get a lesson in, but he's very smart, nice and humble!!! That's about my week, but I love you all and thanks for all your prayers!!!
There's nothing that we can do except be the examples!!! I've been praying that Dad gets better latley so I hope all these studies and changes will really help him! That's super exciiting about the new house and specially the new ward!!!! Now here's the real question... are there any sister missionaries from that ward serving right now???? No I'm just kidding!!! I've got another 14 months left on the mission before I can start thinking about all that stuff. I'm really excited for you guys though and that's so cool about Cam's job and that he'll be a Crowe!!!! You never would've saw that coming when you guys first got married!!! I really am happy about that!!! It's been incredible, and difficult, but mostly incredible to have had 2 great Dads, both very different, help us to grow and progress in this life! Thanks for the letter Mom!!! Love you guys tons!!!
June 9, 2014
First of all, something a little crazy, my comp isn't Elder Western, It's Elder De Lama! He's another Peruvian!!! He only has 3 weeks left in the mission :( so I will have a special change soon, but I'm learning so much from him! He was a district leader for 4 changes and a zone leader for 6, so more than half his mission he has had experience as a leader and it's incredible how much I'm going to learn in 3 short weeks!!!! I'm very excited and I've realized how blessed I've been with my awesome comps that I have had, every single one has been a great leader. This change Elder Pike got put as a zone leader!!!! Oh and the other 2 missionaries in my house are the same! I'm excited. It is a little difficult here to find people that are married! They either don't see the importance or they don't have the money. It's kind of a long process and it's hard to get all the documents needed. People usually don't even have birth certificates for them or their kids.... Jefferson is doing good, but we haven't had a whole lot of contact with him or with his mom so we need to get a good charla with them! We are still getting fed well! This week has been a lot colder in the morning and at night, but still during the day it's normally warmish, so you're always putting on and taking off your jacket. This week we found a friend of Milagros, her name is Lucia and she's 15 years old. She is super awesome and very smart! The biggest problem we have with her is that her parents don't want her to be baptized, but that's because we haven't talked with them yet!!! This week we lost a lot of time to work, but this week is going to be better, even though we're going to lose more time... We have a conference/interviews with Pres on Wed and Thurs we have to travel 4 hours to Montevideo because we have a combined conference with the other mission and a 70 from the Pres of the 70. That sounds like our week!!!!
That's awesome!!! He'll get there, it'll probably be better so that he doesn't break himself during the move!!! That would be awesome if Uncle Ryan moved to Utah with all of us!!! That'll be super good for Clara and Ethan!!! Vamos Arriba!!! That's really cool about Cam!!! I'm super excited about him getting married too!!! Brig is definitely gonna find something in Orem... It's home of the genius mormons and all the boy scout clubs, he'll be able to find a great robotics club and some great friends!!! That's super cool that he's building his own computer, what a genius!!!
I definitely will pray for you guys and I'll send Ethan a letter, make sure he reads it. He really doesn't need to worry about the mission because I'm gonna get home and pound this stuff into his head!!! Something good would be if he really studied Preach my Gospel, or even as a family!!! Especially in chapter 3, it has all the lessons!!! Plus he can ask for the pamphlets from the missionaries, that would be great and simple. Honestly, I got to the mission and didn't know very much at all, but you learn so fast!!! There are missionaries who come in the mission and literally know NOTHING, but they get it done!!! Thanks for the letter and love you all tons!!!!!!! Oh and something that would be awesome is to do Family home evenings with the missionaries!!!! Ask them to prepare a lesson and activity and you guys the treats!!! There's a family in the other wars that does family home evenings every Sunday and all members, converts, less actives and investigators are invited, it's really helped their family and some investigators!!!!
Last thing is I have really learned the importance, from my mission pres and the stake pres, of the importance of family home evening, daily scripture study as a family and nightly prayer as a family!!! I really hope you guys could start doing all that, even if it's just for a short time every night!!!!!
--
Love,
Elder Oliver
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
A Cool Experience and a picture:)
Thurs we went to this place called Vergara, it's about an hour away, with an Elderly Elder, Elder Pugmire. We had to help him pack up some stuff from the house out there because they took missionaries out of that area. After we helped him pack up we passed by this girl ,Cristin, that was supposed to get baptized but then the missionaries got taken out. We passed by her to see how she was doing, because I was the only one who knew were she lived. She was doing great!! We decided that she was ready to get baptized that day because there are no missionaries there, it would've been hard to do other days... So, luckily, Elder Pike had brought baptism clothes and I brought baptismal clothes for her, so we started to plan her baptism. We didn't have a key to the church or anything, and there's only 2 active priesthood holders in this branch, one lives an hour away. So we got a key to the church, but he didn't have a key to the font.... .So after a long time, we decided that the only place we could do the baptism was the river... So we stopped by her house, she's only 9, picked her up and went to the river. When this Priesthood holder got there, we had 2 witnesses for the baptism and we did it, in the cold, muddy river. Luckily there was no complications because she has heart problems, but it all went great!!!! Unfortunatley we didn't have camera's, but let me tell you, it was an experience!!! That was my awesome experience of the week!!!
Liliana decided, for now, "not to get baptized".... We actually think it's because of her boyfriend, so that's kind of crappy, but we'll get there!!
We only had Jefferson come to church, this 10 year old kid. We weren't expecting it!!! he's kind of a punk around his friends, but we didn't even invite him and he came to church so Vamos Arriba!!! Easter was kind of a bummy day... There was nothing special done at church or anything, just another day. And our new MP is a super capo. He'll stick of for every single one of us for everything!!!! I'm not sure what his focus is but I definitely know he cares about us beyond belief!!!! Oh and I'll be staying with Elder Pike for another change so that'll be great!!!!!
(For those of you that know Bailey, you know that the buzz cut in this picture is NOT LIKE HIM!!!! He said that he was cutting his hair himself and the attachment fell off, so he ended up having to buzz it:))
Monday, April 14, 2014
Testimony, a birthday wish and PICTURES!!!!
April 7, 2014
So this week was a rough week, but it ended up being pretty good! We worked Mon- Thurs with almost no success, but then I went on an intercambio with one of my zone leaders on Friday, Elder Lacey, and we started doing great again.
Obviously this week was great because we had general conference! It seriously is such an incredible experience in the mission! You receive answers for investigators, we're spiritually uplifted and its just all around awesome!!! Unfortunately we didn't have as many investigators come to see conference, well actually only one.., We wanted more to come because we knew they would feel such an incredible spirit, but everyone has there agency so, that's kind of bummy.
My comp and I are still doing great together, we are having difficulty in our area, but we are learning a ton from each other and we have a lot of potential baptisms!
When I was on the intercambio with E' Lacey, we actually found a lady who was "atheist", then we slowly found out that she's not atheist, it's just sometimes she doesn't wast to believe there's a god in her life because of her difficulties, but she said, in her weakest moments, she always goes back to asking for help from God. We found out that a couple of years ago her son got sick, we're not sure with what yet (we haven't asked). He's only 9 years old and every month they have to travel 3.5 hours to Montivideo to go to 4 different doctors... Her and her son ask, why him??? The mom says, why him and not me??? That's probably the most common and the most difficult question we get. Why is it difficult? That's a question we have to answer through our studying and through our prayer. The scriptures give us some "answers" but it's not quite satisfying to the people. The reason I believe we suffer is because we decided to come down and accept the challenges that we have in our families, we accepted it all, we knew it all! Our trials are here to help us, it may not seem like it, but if we thank our God, during our good and bad times, we will truly see that we are blessed with the true gospel, that we have the hope and faith that we will live our families forever and our trials will only be for a short time!!! The gospel is awesome!!!!
If we all study the Atonement like Richard G. Scott said in conference, we will understand everything better!!! I know that to be true! The Atonement rocks!!!! Love you all!!!!
I did finally get the scriptures, they are awesome thank you!!! I'm glad that you're all doing great and with family! Especially that you're movin up with your cast!!! love you tons!!!
April 14, 2014
I didn't forget!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! FELÍZ CUMPLEAÑOS!!! Happy Birthday mom!!!!
Conference was super incredible!!!! We had some great experiences and it helped us a ton during this week!!! We also finally got to meet our President and we had some incredible interviews!!!
This week was a little rough because Liliana still hasn't gotten baptized.... But we'll get her there!!! Her boyfriend is in town this week and he's a capo so were gonna baptize her by baptizing him!!!!
This week the weather has dropped so now it's super cold at night and in the mornings, but during the days its still pretty warm!
The zone is struggling getting people to come to church because it's cold now and it's there "fall break" here. Unfortunately Uruguatians are a lazy people, so when it's not necessary or super fun, it's hard to get them to do anything.... But that's why we're gonna show them that it's fun and necessary to go to church!!!
Thanks for the pump up about praying and fasting! It's really true, through those two things we can see miracles!!! That's awesome about the ward and all the missionaries headed out!!! That's gonna be awesome!!! I didn't know that people fell away because of what happened with Dad... Usually here it's because they dont come for a couple weeks and nobody goes to tehre house... It's interesting to see why people fall away. it's sad, but it just goes to show you need to be friendly to everyone and do home teaching and vistiing teaching!!! Good luck with everything!!!!
That's a pic of what we do Sunday nights when we turn in our numbers... We go home at 8 and not 9....
Missionaries at there finest!!!!
So this week was a rough week, but it ended up being pretty good! We worked Mon- Thurs with almost no success, but then I went on an intercambio with one of my zone leaders on Friday, Elder Lacey, and we started doing great again.
Obviously this week was great because we had general conference! It seriously is such an incredible experience in the mission! You receive answers for investigators, we're spiritually uplifted and its just all around awesome!!! Unfortunately we didn't have as many investigators come to see conference, well actually only one.., We wanted more to come because we knew they would feel such an incredible spirit, but everyone has there agency so, that's kind of bummy.
My comp and I are still doing great together, we are having difficulty in our area, but we are learning a ton from each other and we have a lot of potential baptisms!
When I was on the intercambio with E' Lacey, we actually found a lady who was "atheist", then we slowly found out that she's not atheist, it's just sometimes she doesn't wast to believe there's a god in her life because of her difficulties, but she said, in her weakest moments, she always goes back to asking for help from God. We found out that a couple of years ago her son got sick, we're not sure with what yet (we haven't asked). He's only 9 years old and every month they have to travel 3.5 hours to Montivideo to go to 4 different doctors... Her and her son ask, why him??? The mom says, why him and not me??? That's probably the most common and the most difficult question we get. Why is it difficult? That's a question we have to answer through our studying and through our prayer. The scriptures give us some "answers" but it's not quite satisfying to the people. The reason I believe we suffer is because we decided to come down and accept the challenges that we have in our families, we accepted it all, we knew it all! Our trials are here to help us, it may not seem like it, but if we thank our God, during our good and bad times, we will truly see that we are blessed with the true gospel, that we have the hope and faith that we will live our families forever and our trials will only be for a short time!!! The gospel is awesome!!!!
If we all study the Atonement like Richard G. Scott said in conference, we will understand everything better!!! I know that to be true! The Atonement rocks!!!! Love you all!!!!
I did finally get the scriptures, they are awesome thank you!!! I'm glad that you're all doing great and with family! Especially that you're movin up with your cast!!! love you tons!!!
April 14, 2014
I didn't forget!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! FELÍZ CUMPLEAÑOS!!! Happy Birthday mom!!!!
Conference was super incredible!!!! We had some great experiences and it helped us a ton during this week!!! We also finally got to meet our President and we had some incredible interviews!!!
This week was a little rough because Liliana still hasn't gotten baptized.... But we'll get her there!!! Her boyfriend is in town this week and he's a capo so were gonna baptize her by baptizing him!!!!
This week the weather has dropped so now it's super cold at night and in the mornings, but during the days its still pretty warm!
The zone is struggling getting people to come to church because it's cold now and it's there "fall break" here. Unfortunately Uruguatians are a lazy people, so when it's not necessary or super fun, it's hard to get them to do anything.... But that's why we're gonna show them that it's fun and necessary to go to church!!!
Thanks for the pump up about praying and fasting! It's really true, through those two things we can see miracles!!! That's awesome about the ward and all the missionaries headed out!!! That's gonna be awesome!!! I didn't know that people fell away because of what happened with Dad... Usually here it's because they dont come for a couple weeks and nobody goes to tehre house... It's interesting to see why people fall away. it's sad, but it just goes to show you need to be friendly to everyone and do home teaching and vistiing teaching!!! Good luck with everything!!!!
That's a pic of what we do Sunday nights when we turn in our numbers... We go home at 8 and not 9....
Missionaries at there finest!!!!
Monday, March 24, 2014
Elder Oliver's catchup:)
March 3, 2014
The 40 scripts is hard, but its going!!! I pick scripture mastery or just scriptures that are direct and teach something useful! The new video is super cool!!!! That'll be great!!! This week we met an 18 year old kid names Johnathan! He smokes, drinks and likes women, but for some reason after the charla my comp and I both felt like he was gonna be baptized... we found him Saturday and he came to church on Sunday!!! He was wearing these dirty clothes, but for some reason to me and my comp it looked like he was wearing a white shirt and tie!!! He didn't like his classes that much because the teacher asked him questions and he was a lot older than everyone in the class, but he told us it would be cool to go on a mission!!!! It's gonna take some work with him, but he is getting baptized!!!! Thanks for the letter!!!! Love you tons!!!!!
March 11, 2014
So, I was learning the 40 scriptures and then I forgot one night so, now I'm not, but I still remember all of the scriptures and I think I might start over again! Some of the people we thought were gonna get baptized, well haven't been baptized yet, but we're definitely working on it!!! Wilson got baptized Sunday for the Stake baptisms, it was an awesome experience!!!! So the weather here is hot hot hot during the day and cold cold cold during the night!!! It is going to be one heck of a cold winter!!! The work is goin great here! We have a lot of people to teach and at the same time we are finding a lot of new people!!! The members are helping out a little bit more, but I hope this change they finally really start helping! So crazy thing, remember E' Pike, my comp before this special change I had, he's gonna be my comp here in Obelisco!!!! And my comp is going back with his old comp to my first house, he is gonna be in my same house and get to know my converts!!!! Oh crazy thing about that, Alejandro, the 19 year old I baptized, is getting the Melchizedek Priesthood next week!!! That made me super happy!!! Both my converts have gone to church every Sunday!!!!!!!! I'm so stoked for them!!!! It's so cool to see the affect of the church in people after only a little bit of time!!! I love being a missionary!!!
Seminary is nothing, get used to it for the mission buddy!!!!
March 17, 2014
So this week was pretty great!!! We baptized Gonzalo this week and it was great. He's a great kid and now I think his mom is interested in being baptized, so we'll see how that one goes!!! Elder Pike and I worked super hard this week to start preparing people to be baptized this month so that they can be happy in this life and so that we can reach the goal of 33 as a zone!!! Everyone thought we were crazy when we put that goal, but we're gonna get it!!! In our house we're 4 gringos so it's been pretty awesome and way fun!!!! It also helps that we all want to be obedient and we all know how to work hard and be good missionaries!!! I know this change I'm going to learn a ton from all of them and it's going to be great!!!! This week was pretty much just a lot of working and more learning!!! I'm loving the mission and hope you guys are all doing great!!!!!
Hey guys!!! To be honest, I haven't been getting letters from anyone.... Actually one from Mom Mom, I don't even really get emails from anyone other than you and Mom Mom, occasionally someone else, like this week Colby, but pretty much I just write you and Mom Mom. Love you and thanks for everything!!!
March 24.2014
This week has been pretty good and pretty rough at the same time!!! We baptized Gonzalo, but he decided not to go to church this Sunday to get confirmed... His mom isn't super interested, but were gonna get her interested and help her get baptized so that Gonzalo can stay in church!!! It's pretty said though because our ward was better when it was a branch... The last 3 branch presidents are menos activos.... So pretty much we have a lot of working to do! Also we were waiting on 6 people to go to church to Sunday and only 1 went. We had to drop 2 really great investigators because they just wont read, pray or go to church. It stinks having to drop investigators, but we can only do so much to help the people... We didn't see a lot of success this week, actually probably the worst week since I've been in this area(3 months), but it just animates us to go and have an incredible week this week!!! My Spanish is doing incredibly well... It's crazy that just after 7 months I'm just comfortable speaking and can almost always understand!!! I still have a lot of work to do on my accent and I need to learn a lot more words, but it's a lot easier to understand. There are still some people that are just impossible to understand, but it's not to bad!!! We are definitely having some cold days and some super hot days!!! At night and in the morning though it's getting way cold!!! I have to use blankets again!!!
The 40 scripts is hard, but its going!!! I pick scripture mastery or just scriptures that are direct and teach something useful! The new video is super cool!!!! That'll be great!!! This week we met an 18 year old kid names Johnathan! He smokes, drinks and likes women, but for some reason after the charla my comp and I both felt like he was gonna be baptized... we found him Saturday and he came to church on Sunday!!! He was wearing these dirty clothes, but for some reason to me and my comp it looked like he was wearing a white shirt and tie!!! He didn't like his classes that much because the teacher asked him questions and he was a lot older than everyone in the class, but he told us it would be cool to go on a mission!!!! It's gonna take some work with him, but he is getting baptized!!!! Thanks for the letter!!!! Love you tons!!!!!
March 11, 2014
So, I was learning the 40 scriptures and then I forgot one night so, now I'm not, but I still remember all of the scriptures and I think I might start over again! Some of the people we thought were gonna get baptized, well haven't been baptized yet, but we're definitely working on it!!! Wilson got baptized Sunday for the Stake baptisms, it was an awesome experience!!!! So the weather here is hot hot hot during the day and cold cold cold during the night!!! It is going to be one heck of a cold winter!!! The work is goin great here! We have a lot of people to teach and at the same time we are finding a lot of new people!!! The members are helping out a little bit more, but I hope this change they finally really start helping! So crazy thing, remember E' Pike, my comp before this special change I had, he's gonna be my comp here in Obelisco!!!! And my comp is going back with his old comp to my first house, he is gonna be in my same house and get to know my converts!!!! Oh crazy thing about that, Alejandro, the 19 year old I baptized, is getting the Melchizedek Priesthood next week!!! That made me super happy!!! Both my converts have gone to church every Sunday!!!!!!!! I'm so stoked for them!!!! It's so cool to see the affect of the church in people after only a little bit of time!!! I love being a missionary!!!
Seminary is nothing, get used to it for the mission buddy!!!!
March 17, 2014
So this week was pretty great!!! We baptized Gonzalo this week and it was great. He's a great kid and now I think his mom is interested in being baptized, so we'll see how that one goes!!! Elder Pike and I worked super hard this week to start preparing people to be baptized this month so that they can be happy in this life and so that we can reach the goal of 33 as a zone!!! Everyone thought we were crazy when we put that goal, but we're gonna get it!!! In our house we're 4 gringos so it's been pretty awesome and way fun!!!! It also helps that we all want to be obedient and we all know how to work hard and be good missionaries!!! I know this change I'm going to learn a ton from all of them and it's going to be great!!!! This week was pretty much just a lot of working and more learning!!! I'm loving the mission and hope you guys are all doing great!!!!!
Hey guys!!! To be honest, I haven't been getting letters from anyone.... Actually one from Mom Mom, I don't even really get emails from anyone other than you and Mom Mom, occasionally someone else, like this week Colby, but pretty much I just write you and Mom Mom. Love you and thanks for everything!!!
March 24.2014
This week has been pretty good and pretty rough at the same time!!! We baptized Gonzalo, but he decided not to go to church this Sunday to get confirmed... His mom isn't super interested, but were gonna get her interested and help her get baptized so that Gonzalo can stay in church!!! It's pretty said though because our ward was better when it was a branch... The last 3 branch presidents are menos activos.... So pretty much we have a lot of working to do! Also we were waiting on 6 people to go to church to Sunday and only 1 went. We had to drop 2 really great investigators because they just wont read, pray or go to church. It stinks having to drop investigators, but we can only do so much to help the people... We didn't see a lot of success this week, actually probably the worst week since I've been in this area(3 months), but it just animates us to go and have an incredible week this week!!! My Spanish is doing incredibly well... It's crazy that just after 7 months I'm just comfortable speaking and can almost always understand!!! I still have a lot of work to do on my accent and I need to learn a lot more words, but it's a lot easier to understand. There are still some people that are just impossible to understand, but it's not to bad!!! We are definitely having some cold days and some super hot days!!! At night and in the morning though it's getting way cold!!! I have to use blankets again!!!
Monday, February 24, 2014
Feb 17, 2014 and Feb 24, 2014
This week was a pretty good week! We worked hard to get a baptism this week, but it didn't quite work out, but we have 3 ready for this week so, Vamos Arriba! It's been hard to visit all the people we have to visit because we don't really have a lot of help from the members, but they are doing a lot better now, I think they realized this week when we didn't have any baptisms the members realized that they like having baptisms and they want to help more so that's pretty awesome!!!
This week has been super hot and pretty chilly in the nights, so it's cooling down, I hope!!!
We've got a lot of really great investigators and it's just incredible to see all of their progress!!! It's super cool what the gospel does to their lives!
This Friday we took a little trip to another Zone for a short little Conference and it was pretty good! Our temporary mission president is a super capò!!! He's been president before and he's been a temporary here before!
But after the conference at the house we had 6 other elders staying the night, so like always, we bought pizza, the same pizza as always. The next morning was awful!!! We were all fighting for the bathroom and it was just an awful day, but yesterday and today were a lot better!!!
Oh I also thought I had lost my wallet, up until the point I called the financers and cancelled my church card, but I found it this morning so it's all ok"!!! Other than being sick though, this week was super good, we just need more time in the day to teach everyone we want!! Today our PDay only goes till 3 and not 6 because WED we get to go to the temple!!!! I'm super excited!!! I'll finally get to see the new video, and it's gonna be a great day!!! LOVE YOU ALL TONS!!!!
Feb 24, 2014
This week was a great week!!! We ended the week with 3 baptisms on Sunday and was super awesome!!! Luis Miguel, Kevin and Romina. Luis Miguel I had to baptize him 3 times because he's a big kid and I couldn't get his head all the way under the water!!! It was so hard!!! I think the reason I got it on the third time was we started to fill up the water so that there was more agua in the font!!! It was a super awesome experience!!! We went by there house later that day and it's just incredible to see the difference in there faces and knowing how much better there lives are going to be!!! Our zone is going crazy with baptisms!!! Our goal was 14 and we have 24!!!! Our district has 15 and our area has 10!!!!
I've learned so much from my new comp that I wanna see if I can do it with a different comp! The weather has still been crazy like in Utah, but pretty much every night is chilly so we can sleep super well!!!! The members still aren't helping a ton, but they are slowly getting to the point of helping us more with all the baptisms we've had. It's super incredible everything that I've learned in the mission and I can just look back on it all and see how the mission is preparing us to be the most successful people we can possibly be in our lives!!!! The changes I've seen is just incredible and I will continue to work as hard as can for the people in this country, so that they can live with their families for eternity like we can!!!! But first I have to learn how to understand them!!!! No, I can understand them pretty well, but they definitely talk a lot different than in my first area!!! They're all from farms and fields here and my other area was more city so its super different here, but I like the challenge, not really, I'm just used to it by now!!!
Oh yeah and now I'm doing this promise from Pres Hinckley that if you memorize 1 scripture everyday for 40 days you willl have a photographic memory, It's super hard, I almost quit yesterday, but now I'm on day 12!!!! It's actually helped a lot in charlas and stuff to have scriptures memorized!!!!
The temple was incredible and the new video just blew all of our minds!!!! We packed that little temple literally to the limits! But even though the video was in Spanish, i feel like I understand everything and I didn't even have to try and translate everything in my head, so that was awesome!!! The only part not so awesome was the 4 hour bus trip their and then 4 hours back, but other than that it was great!!!
(For all of you following Elder Oliver, I think we should count the number of times he says SUPER, AWESOME, and GREAT and then encourage him to strengthen his vocabulary when he gets home:) I am so glad that he is happy, healthy and excited to be sharing the gospel!
This week has been super hot and pretty chilly in the nights, so it's cooling down, I hope!!!
We've got a lot of really great investigators and it's just incredible to see all of their progress!!! It's super cool what the gospel does to their lives!
This Friday we took a little trip to another Zone for a short little Conference and it was pretty good! Our temporary mission president is a super capò!!! He's been president before and he's been a temporary here before!
But after the conference at the house we had 6 other elders staying the night, so like always, we bought pizza, the same pizza as always. The next morning was awful!!! We were all fighting for the bathroom and it was just an awful day, but yesterday and today were a lot better!!!
Oh I also thought I had lost my wallet, up until the point I called the financers and cancelled my church card, but I found it this morning so it's all ok"!!! Other than being sick though, this week was super good, we just need more time in the day to teach everyone we want!! Today our PDay only goes till 3 and not 6 because WED we get to go to the temple!!!! I'm super excited!!! I'll finally get to see the new video, and it's gonna be a great day!!! LOVE YOU ALL TONS!!!!
Feb 24, 2014
This week was a great week!!! We ended the week with 3 baptisms on Sunday and was super awesome!!! Luis Miguel, Kevin and Romina. Luis Miguel I had to baptize him 3 times because he's a big kid and I couldn't get his head all the way under the water!!! It was so hard!!! I think the reason I got it on the third time was we started to fill up the water so that there was more agua in the font!!! It was a super awesome experience!!! We went by there house later that day and it's just incredible to see the difference in there faces and knowing how much better there lives are going to be!!! Our zone is going crazy with baptisms!!! Our goal was 14 and we have 24!!!! Our district has 15 and our area has 10!!!!
I've learned so much from my new comp that I wanna see if I can do it with a different comp! The weather has still been crazy like in Utah, but pretty much every night is chilly so we can sleep super well!!!! The members still aren't helping a ton, but they are slowly getting to the point of helping us more with all the baptisms we've had. It's super incredible everything that I've learned in the mission and I can just look back on it all and see how the mission is preparing us to be the most successful people we can possibly be in our lives!!!! The changes I've seen is just incredible and I will continue to work as hard as can for the people in this country, so that they can live with their families for eternity like we can!!!! But first I have to learn how to understand them!!!! No, I can understand them pretty well, but they definitely talk a lot different than in my first area!!! They're all from farms and fields here and my other area was more city so its super different here, but I like the challenge, not really, I'm just used to it by now!!!
Oh yeah and now I'm doing this promise from Pres Hinckley that if you memorize 1 scripture everyday for 40 days you willl have a photographic memory, It's super hard, I almost quit yesterday, but now I'm on day 12!!!! It's actually helped a lot in charlas and stuff to have scriptures memorized!!!!
The temple was incredible and the new video just blew all of our minds!!!! We packed that little temple literally to the limits! But even though the video was in Spanish, i feel like I understand everything and I didn't even have to try and translate everything in my head, so that was awesome!!! The only part not so awesome was the 4 hour bus trip their and then 4 hours back, but other than that it was great!!!
(For all of you following Elder Oliver, I think we should count the number of times he says SUPER, AWESOME, and GREAT and then encourage him to strengthen his vocabulary when he gets home:) I am so glad that he is happy, healthy and excited to be sharing the gospel!
Monday, February 10, 2014
Bailey is having a bit of a rough time
Those of you who know and love Bailey, please keep him in your prayers. This is the first bit of "negativity" that we have heard. I am sure that he is fine, but your prayers and any snail mail letters or emails would certainly be appreciated!
So this week was incredible and incredibly hard and annoying!!!! First off, we had our 3 baptisms!!!!! That makes it 10 in the past 3 weeks!!!! I have no idea how we are finding all of thes people, but we just work and work and then work harder!!!! We reached all the goals for our numbers this week as an area and were at the top of the chart!!!! It's not a competition, but it's definitely good to see the fruits of your labor. Especially when your leaders don't believe in you... But what are we gonna do...?
I think it was Wed, the assistants showed up at our house to do an intercambio with the zone leaders, it was actually divisions. That day I was with E' Ipson from my district on an intercambio and I challenged the Assistants with our Zone Leaders to see who could find 10 new investigators first, which was a very high goal for one day!!! They only needed to find 5 each, but we won, it was awesome to have a little friendly competition to help the people here..... especially when you win!!!
Even though we baptized, it's been kind of a rough week... Our Mission Pres and the Assistants want us to baptize, but then our Zone leaders, Stake Pres and bishop and members aren't happy with us. I don't understand why, we baptize, they're all mad, we don't baptize, they're all mad, but who cares, as long as were baptizing!!!
My comp is awesome and he helps me a ton have patience and figure out what we should do! He's helped me more than you can imagine this week! And then today we didn't have the other missionaries at the house helping us clean and I was kind of upset, but then my comp starting singing "put your shoulder to the wheel" (in English even) and I remembered all the crappy days doing bounce houses with dad, when everyone was screwing up and we had to fix all the problems and we would sing, "Put Your Shoulder to the Bounce House"! It's really incredible the things you remember from the past! It's pretty much what you've learned and time spent with the family (that matters), it's pretty awesome. That's why I'm glad we're helping all these kids here get baptized, they're going to remember the experiences in the church their whole life, but probably none of the other stupid mistakes they make outside of church, its super awesome!!!
Oh the weather has sucked this week, it's been hot and rainy, hotter and rainier or just super hot. I think Thurs night here it was 89 degrees in the house at like 11:30. Lets just say it was kind of hot! But Over all, I'm doing great and I love seeing people learn about the gospel and hearing from you guys!!! Love you tons!!!!
So this week was incredible and incredibly hard and annoying!!!! First off, we had our 3 baptisms!!!!! That makes it 10 in the past 3 weeks!!!! I have no idea how we are finding all of thes people, but we just work and work and then work harder!!!! We reached all the goals for our numbers this week as an area and were at the top of the chart!!!! It's not a competition, but it's definitely good to see the fruits of your labor. Especially when your leaders don't believe in you... But what are we gonna do...?
I think it was Wed, the assistants showed up at our house to do an intercambio with the zone leaders, it was actually divisions. That day I was with E' Ipson from my district on an intercambio and I challenged the Assistants with our Zone Leaders to see who could find 10 new investigators first, which was a very high goal for one day!!! They only needed to find 5 each, but we won, it was awesome to have a little friendly competition to help the people here..... especially when you win!!!
Even though we baptized, it's been kind of a rough week... Our Mission Pres and the Assistants want us to baptize, but then our Zone leaders, Stake Pres and bishop and members aren't happy with us. I don't understand why, we baptize, they're all mad, we don't baptize, they're all mad, but who cares, as long as were baptizing!!!
My comp is awesome and he helps me a ton have patience and figure out what we should do! He's helped me more than you can imagine this week! And then today we didn't have the other missionaries at the house helping us clean and I was kind of upset, but then my comp starting singing "put your shoulder to the wheel" (in English even) and I remembered all the crappy days doing bounce houses with dad, when everyone was screwing up and we had to fix all the problems and we would sing, "Put Your Shoulder to the Bounce House"! It's really incredible the things you remember from the past! It's pretty much what you've learned and time spent with the family (that matters), it's pretty awesome. That's why I'm glad we're helping all these kids here get baptized, they're going to remember the experiences in the church their whole life, but probably none of the other stupid mistakes they make outside of church, its super awesome!!!
Oh the weather has sucked this week, it's been hot and rainy, hotter and rainier or just super hot. I think Thurs night here it was 89 degrees in the house at like 11:30. Lets just say it was kind of hot! But Over all, I'm doing great and I love seeing people learn about the gospel and hearing from you guys!!! Love you tons!!!!
Monday, February 3, 2014
Feb. 3, 2014
Hello friends and family--- Could you please help me out by emailing me pictures of yourselves so that I can mail them to Bailey in a small photobook? Cary--- ilovetobecici@gmail.com
Wow, this week was another incredible week!!!! The mission had the goal of 130 baptisms in January and we reached it! We heard that one day Elder Anderson called the mission president and said, "President, how are you guys doing with your baptisms?" And president said, " Well it looks like we going to reach it and more", Then Elder Anderson said, "President, are goals, limits?" And then he put the goal to beat the old record, 152, we reached 155!!! It was an incredible month!!!!
Our President went home last Monday and our new President, Pres Cook from Idaho, isn't going to get here until the third week of March. so I think we have a 70 or someone as our Pres for a little bit.... But this is going to be an incredible month!!! I don't know what the goal is yet, but we are going to reach it!!!
For our area our goal is 8 and we had 4 this Sunday!!!!!! And 3 more this upcoming Sunday!!!! We're doing super awesome!!! We've been working a fool, but we are definitely seeing the fruits of our labors!! This week we reached all the normas de excelencia, these are the standards of excellency the mission has for every week and it's a task to reach them, but I finally did it for the first time and now I want to do it every week!!! Our baptisms names were, Marcos 9, Micaele 9, Pablo and Ismael 12. They are hopefully going to be the only 2 deacons we have in the ward in the next 2 weeks!!!! It was incredible this Sunday to be in a ward with only 8 priesthood holders in the whole ward, well this Sunday, and they all have the Melchezidek Priesthood... That's including us as well!!!
It's because here if it's hot, rainy, cold or between 2-5, everyone has a nap!!!! and nothing is opened!!!! They are super duper lazy down here!!!! They wonder why they're poor, it's because they sleep all day..... and the funny thing is there is a super rich member in the stake that has like 4 pharmacies and this little food car and it is by far the most successful food car here!!!! Why? it's great food, cheap and opened during lunch hours....
But the past 2 weeks have been super stormy and rainy and we here that this whole month is gonna be like that.... Oh well, OH yea I've learned that water proof shoes aren't that helpful... My pants get wet, which gets my socks wet and then the water gets in your shoes and never leaves. It's been super hard to dry my shoes and clothes, but I like the rain it's fun!!! I've learned the trick to missionary work and really to life is just the attitude that you have about everything!!! That's my week!!! Love you all!!!!
Wow, this week was another incredible week!!!! The mission had the goal of 130 baptisms in January and we reached it! We heard that one day Elder Anderson called the mission president and said, "President, how are you guys doing with your baptisms?" And president said, " Well it looks like we going to reach it and more", Then Elder Anderson said, "President, are goals, limits?" And then he put the goal to beat the old record, 152, we reached 155!!! It was an incredible month!!!!
Our President went home last Monday and our new President, Pres Cook from Idaho, isn't going to get here until the third week of March. so I think we have a 70 or someone as our Pres for a little bit.... But this is going to be an incredible month!!! I don't know what the goal is yet, but we are going to reach it!!!
For our area our goal is 8 and we had 4 this Sunday!!!!!! And 3 more this upcoming Sunday!!!! We're doing super awesome!!! We've been working a fool, but we are definitely seeing the fruits of our labors!! This week we reached all the normas de excelencia, these are the standards of excellency the mission has for every week and it's a task to reach them, but I finally did it for the first time and now I want to do it every week!!! Our baptisms names were, Marcos 9, Micaele 9, Pablo and Ismael 12. They are hopefully going to be the only 2 deacons we have in the ward in the next 2 weeks!!!! It was incredible this Sunday to be in a ward with only 8 priesthood holders in the whole ward, well this Sunday, and they all have the Melchezidek Priesthood... That's including us as well!!!
It's because here if it's hot, rainy, cold or between 2-5, everyone has a nap!!!! and nothing is opened!!!! They are super duper lazy down here!!!! They wonder why they're poor, it's because they sleep all day..... and the funny thing is there is a super rich member in the stake that has like 4 pharmacies and this little food car and it is by far the most successful food car here!!!! Why? it's great food, cheap and opened during lunch hours....
But the past 2 weeks have been super stormy and rainy and we here that this whole month is gonna be like that.... Oh well, OH yea I've learned that water proof shoes aren't that helpful... My pants get wet, which gets my socks wet and then the water gets in your shoes and never leaves. It's been super hard to dry my shoes and clothes, but I like the rain it's fun!!! I've learned the trick to missionary work and really to life is just the attitude that you have about everything!!! That's my week!!! Love you all!!!!
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Jan 28, 2014
Yesterday we got cambios and everyone in our district is staying except for one hermana. It's kind of sad because she is probably one of the best missionaries in the mission, but the crazy thing is the hermana coming in is from my group and the hermana staying here is my from group. They were comps in the MTC!!!! It's crazy!!! This change is going to be super awesome and we are going to have a lot of baptisms!!!!
The mission is only 6 baptisms away from our goal of 130 this month, doubling last year in January. I think it's 1: because our mission president is leaving. 2: He promised the 12 apostles that we will reach this goal, so I think that we have them praying for our mission specifically!!!!
This week has been hot, cold, rainy and even hotter, but we've been finding miracles all week and we will continue to find them!!!
--
Love,
Elder Oliver
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Letter catch-up, again... Two great letters
Jan 13, 2014
Hey everyone! This week was incredible!!! We had tons of success and high numbers which is always good too!!! The Hermanas still beat everyone in the Zone, but we came in 2nd place, again. The Hermanas are super awesome! And they had a baptismo which is sweet!! The person they baptized is always helping us now, so that's super sweet!!!
I dunno where this came from, but my comp and I have made the goal to have 8 baptisms on the 26th of this month... That's kind of ridiculous, but I really think we can reach this goal! It's gonna be super awesome, but really difficult!!! Our ZL's don't believe in us, but I'm sure we're gonna make it!!!
We didn't have a lot of lunches this past week, but I made sure that changed this week!!! I really wish it was a lot colder here!!!! There was actually 1 night that it was chilly and it was so easy to sleep, I loved it!!!! It's just been rainy and hot and rainy and hot here, but it's super great! This week we found this one family and one of the daughters name is Milagros ( Miracles), I'm not gonna lie, that family is definitely a bunch of milagros!!! They are gonna be at least 5 of our 8 baptisms. This week was just a lot of walking/running to reach our goals for the week, but we reached them!!! The Zone Leaders put 2 desafios with each companionship this week and ours was to have 5 fechas for baptism, check, and 100% of our references contacted, that was super hard. We had to contact 14 on Sunday, but we did it!!! I'm loving the mission right now!!! It's super tiring and hard, but it's so incredible to see the changes in peoples lives!!!! For anyone with just a little doubt in their head, they should just push it out and go, because it's incredible!!!
Sounds like you guys have had a crazy week!!! It's super awesome that you guys have snow, that's definitely something I miss. It's super good that everyone is gonna be starting school up again, just a little scary that Ethan has a car now... Dad always going to the hospital... At least he's ok! The Oils have been working super good! I actually thought about starting to sell them down here to the other missionairies, but I don't think that's gonna fly with the mission president... but I do need more if you could get them down here... Love you all a ton!!!!!
Jan 21, 2014
The hermanas won again!!!! We came in 2nd which is ok with me, because the hermanas son capas!!! They both have super bad knees, but they just show their love for these people and destroy it every week!
This week was great!!! We are still teaching the super awesome family and part of them are preparing to baptized this week and hopefully the other part the next week! Milagros, the 13 year old daughter, has always read the chapters in the LDM We've left here to read so we told her to start from the beginning, and she did. That night she got home and started to read at 12 in the night and read till 2 in the morning up until chapter 6! Then after church that next day she read more and when we got to there house she had read up until chapter 10! The coolest thing is that she understands and remembers everything she has learned!!! That shows me, like my other 2 baptismos, that these people are literally prepared by angels!
It's still super hot, with random rain torments, like right now. Actually on Sunday it hailed, but we were in a house the whole time so that's ok! Saturday the assistants texted the ZLs and said that everyone needs to travel for a conference Monday at 12 and not to ask why because they didn't know.... Nobody knew what to expect, but the mission president announced he has to go home, by the advice of the prophets, to fix some legal issues with his hospitals/ business. I never expected to have more than 1 mission president, but things happen. It's super sad, but this month we have the opportunity to reach the meta of the month for baptismos and if we reach it, it'll be the first time in a long time!!! Like 10 years. We're trying to double the number for last Jan(65) and right now we have 65!!! This week we're gonna see miracles to finish out strong for our Pres. At the end of the conference as missionaries we decided to sing Till we Meet Again for our Pres, and lets just say the spirit was there!!! I'm gonna miss Pres Newsome, because he's incredible, but what are we gonna do...
We're preparing for 4 baptisms this week, so I'm super excited!!! I've been learning a lot lately how to recognize the spirit better and how cool the gospel is!!! It's so cool and logical!!! I've been studying hard and learning a ton, I suggest it to every person in the world!!! If you have true intention to learn and feel the spirit, you'll be impressed in how interesting the Book of Mormon is and the true power it has beacause IT IS THE WORD OF GOD! I never thought I would say this, but I love learning and reading and I wish I had more time to do it!!!!!!!!! I was talking with Elder Smart, my MTC comp, he was on the bus to Montevideo with me, and with Elder Arellano, about how we are on the same level of spirituality as the Apostles. We are literally set apart as special witness's of Christ, like the apostles. We have the same duty to preach, ALWAYs, as the apostles. We just don't realize the power we have as missionaries or the potential we have! Plus we don't know how to trust and use the spirit like the apostles, but I hope by the end of my mission I have used this power I have to the best of my ability, so that I can use it after as well.... If I can suggest those preparing for a mission, Ethan, Brigham, and Clara, and others, study the scriptures and study the power of the Holy Ghost and learn tp recognize it and follow it now!!!!!!! Love you all! !
Thanks for the letter mom!! Love you tons!! Don't worry I'm gonna stay out here and continue to do what I need!!! I know that Craig dad is with me and helping me always!!!! I can't believe that Dad is opening a shop like that.... Where in the world did that idea come from!?!?!?!!?! I hope they can find friends faster, I'll definitely pray for them!!! I heard about Cam, what a stud!!! And things I need, want, money to buy a thumb drive to put my pics and stuff on, seasoning like montreal steak seasoning, and stuff like that, PHOTOS, oh yeah my watch battery died, so money for that or a new one, and I was thinking that if Craig dad had a journal, I would really love to read that, especially if he had one from his mission and a copy of his patriarchal blessing and maybe the dvd if you have it. I would love all those things!!!!! Oh also something a little bit bigger is a set of super nice scriptures in English, that are separated, not the quad, in a nice case. I would like to study these and mark these so Ethan can use Dad's scriptures to, but the scriptures are a lot more correct in English. I know this is a lot, but whenever you can!!! Oh did you watch that one video I told you?!?!?!?! It's to good not to watch it! :) Love you a ton!
Hey everyone! This week was incredible!!! We had tons of success and high numbers which is always good too!!! The Hermanas still beat everyone in the Zone, but we came in 2nd place, again. The Hermanas are super awesome! And they had a baptismo which is sweet!! The person they baptized is always helping us now, so that's super sweet!!!
I dunno where this came from, but my comp and I have made the goal to have 8 baptisms on the 26th of this month... That's kind of ridiculous, but I really think we can reach this goal! It's gonna be super awesome, but really difficult!!! Our ZL's don't believe in us, but I'm sure we're gonna make it!!!
We didn't have a lot of lunches this past week, but I made sure that changed this week!!! I really wish it was a lot colder here!!!! There was actually 1 night that it was chilly and it was so easy to sleep, I loved it!!!! It's just been rainy and hot and rainy and hot here, but it's super great! This week we found this one family and one of the daughters name is Milagros ( Miracles), I'm not gonna lie, that family is definitely a bunch of milagros!!! They are gonna be at least 5 of our 8 baptisms. This week was just a lot of walking/running to reach our goals for the week, but we reached them!!! The Zone Leaders put 2 desafios with each companionship this week and ours was to have 5 fechas for baptism, check, and 100% of our references contacted, that was super hard. We had to contact 14 on Sunday, but we did it!!! I'm loving the mission right now!!! It's super tiring and hard, but it's so incredible to see the changes in peoples lives!!!! For anyone with just a little doubt in their head, they should just push it out and go, because it's incredible!!!
Sounds like you guys have had a crazy week!!! It's super awesome that you guys have snow, that's definitely something I miss. It's super good that everyone is gonna be starting school up again, just a little scary that Ethan has a car now... Dad always going to the hospital... At least he's ok! The Oils have been working super good! I actually thought about starting to sell them down here to the other missionairies, but I don't think that's gonna fly with the mission president... but I do need more if you could get them down here... Love you all a ton!!!!!
Jan 21, 2014
The hermanas won again!!!! We came in 2nd which is ok with me, because the hermanas son capas!!! They both have super bad knees, but they just show their love for these people and destroy it every week!
This week was great!!! We are still teaching the super awesome family and part of them are preparing to baptized this week and hopefully the other part the next week! Milagros, the 13 year old daughter, has always read the chapters in the LDM We've left here to read so we told her to start from the beginning, and she did. That night she got home and started to read at 12 in the night and read till 2 in the morning up until chapter 6! Then after church that next day she read more and when we got to there house she had read up until chapter 10! The coolest thing is that she understands and remembers everything she has learned!!! That shows me, like my other 2 baptismos, that these people are literally prepared by angels!
It's still super hot, with random rain torments, like right now. Actually on Sunday it hailed, but we were in a house the whole time so that's ok! Saturday the assistants texted the ZLs and said that everyone needs to travel for a conference Monday at 12 and not to ask why because they didn't know.... Nobody knew what to expect, but the mission president announced he has to go home, by the advice of the prophets, to fix some legal issues with his hospitals/ business. I never expected to have more than 1 mission president, but things happen. It's super sad, but this month we have the opportunity to reach the meta of the month for baptismos and if we reach it, it'll be the first time in a long time!!! Like 10 years. We're trying to double the number for last Jan(65) and right now we have 65!!! This week we're gonna see miracles to finish out strong for our Pres. At the end of the conference as missionaries we decided to sing Till we Meet Again for our Pres, and lets just say the spirit was there!!! I'm gonna miss Pres Newsome, because he's incredible, but what are we gonna do...
We're preparing for 4 baptisms this week, so I'm super excited!!! I've been learning a lot lately how to recognize the spirit better and how cool the gospel is!!! It's so cool and logical!!! I've been studying hard and learning a ton, I suggest it to every person in the world!!! If you have true intention to learn and feel the spirit, you'll be impressed in how interesting the Book of Mormon is and the true power it has beacause IT IS THE WORD OF GOD! I never thought I would say this, but I love learning and reading and I wish I had more time to do it!!!!!!!!! I was talking with Elder Smart, my MTC comp, he was on the bus to Montevideo with me, and with Elder Arellano, about how we are on the same level of spirituality as the Apostles. We are literally set apart as special witness's of Christ, like the apostles. We have the same duty to preach, ALWAYs, as the apostles. We just don't realize the power we have as missionaries or the potential we have! Plus we don't know how to trust and use the spirit like the apostles, but I hope by the end of my mission I have used this power I have to the best of my ability, so that I can use it after as well.... If I can suggest those preparing for a mission, Ethan, Brigham, and Clara, and others, study the scriptures and study the power of the Holy Ghost and learn tp recognize it and follow it now!!!!!!! Love you all! !
Thanks for the letter mom!! Love you tons!! Don't worry I'm gonna stay out here and continue to do what I need!!! I know that Craig dad is with me and helping me always!!!! I can't believe that Dad is opening a shop like that.... Where in the world did that idea come from!?!?!?!!?! I hope they can find friends faster, I'll definitely pray for them!!! I heard about Cam, what a stud!!! And things I need, want, money to buy a thumb drive to put my pics and stuff on, seasoning like montreal steak seasoning, and stuff like that, PHOTOS, oh yeah my watch battery died, so money for that or a new one, and I was thinking that if Craig dad had a journal, I would really love to read that, especially if he had one from his mission and a copy of his patriarchal blessing and maybe the dvd if you have it. I would love all those things!!!!! Oh also something a little bit bigger is a set of super nice scriptures in English, that are separated, not the quad, in a nice case. I would like to study these and mark these so Ethan can use Dad's scriptures to, but the scriptures are a lot more correct in English. I know this is a lot, but whenever you can!!! Oh did you watch that one video I told you?!?!?!?! It's to good not to watch it! :) Love you a ton!
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Catch up letters:)
Hey! This week was crazy. We are in Zone Este which is the zone with the offices and mission home and all that stuff, so we are always helping!!! We had the conferencia de navidad and that was super cool! Then we had this huge multi stake actividad Sat and Sun that we helped set up for and do! It was from 8-12 both nights and we had to stay for all of it, so I'm pretty much dead!!!! but they were all super cool!!
My comp, Elder Pike, was in the choir for the conference and the stake activity, it was amazing. The people were in awe at the choir of our mission. They got a standing ovation both nights! Sat there were about 350 and Sunday about 500! But it kind of stunk because we had no time at all to work, but this week we're going get stuff done!!!
He's from SLC Utah and he's super awesome! I heard that he's one of the best missionaries in the whole mission and I can definately see it! He only has 8 months in the mission and 13 baptisms and he's just awesome! We are going to baptize together!!! We haven't really had time to get to know each other, but we do know that we are going to work super hard and super well together this exchange! I'm prettty excited!!!!!! I've been doing a lot better at talking with the members this week and calling people on the phone so that's good! I think that's about it!! Feliz Navidad everyone!!!!!!!!
Hola! Thank you so much for the package, it was great!!! I love the Christmas tree, it's super awesome!!!! Something I did learn though, It's better to send real food like peanut butter and stuff than candy, but I'm not complaining, I loved it!!! I'm glad you guys are doing super great!!! We are going to do skype at 3 our time, so i think thats 10 there! I'm super stoked to talk to you guys and see how everything is going, talk to you Wednesday!!!!!! Love you!!!
And the next one:
Well I'm gonna start with this..... 5 mins ago I got a call and I'm leaving on a special change tomorrow at 10 to oblisquo or something like that because there are some elders having trouble up there and I'm supposed to go and help fix it.... I think... I'm not really sure, but that's crazy I'm gonna miss my area!!! That's just an unexpected change and its to treinta tres which is super far away. Part of that zone is in Brazil.
It was a super great Christmas. I think it was in the 100s all week... I dunno, but it was hot, hot, hot!!! Now I'm headed farther up north and I'm gonna die!!!! Talking with the families on skype though really animated us as a companionship and we just went out and destroyed that day!!! We have been planning in a different way lately. Usually we just write about 12 names down to visit per day, but now were writing about 40 or 45 and that's why we saw miracles on Christmas!!! Every, every, EVERY charla we had planned that day failed, but the Lord knew we were trying our hardest and put people in our path that day! We found 6 new investigators and just had a killer day. We didn't really have a lot of other success this week, E Pike and I felt like failures cuz were supposed to be the examples, but we have or I guess now had all these plans to change that. We were gonna do some great things together this change, but I've learned a ton from him this week!!! He's taught me a lot about being a leader and I'm just glad I got to be comps with such an incredible missionary. Now I just hope that I can use what I learned from him the rest of my mission!!! That was pretty much the week, hot, Christmasy, and even more hot!!!
Thank you for all that you guys do for me!! Just talking to you guys on Christmas day gave me so much more animo just to get out there and give it my all for the next 2 years!! I'm so happy you are all doing great and Cam looks like Santa Clause mixed with a leprechaun. He's really taking on the computer programmer. I'm just glad I can't grow that much hair, its already annoying enough to shave once a day! Thanks for the email and the package and all the other stuff you do for me!!!! I love you guys a ton!!! I'm excited to hear the responses to that video!!!!
And the last one:
Bueno, I am in treinta tres ahora, in the area Obelisco A. My comp is Elder Arellano, another Peruvian comp, but he's super awesome!!! He is the DL here and has 15 months in the mission. He is a super capo!!! We also live with the 2 Zone Leaders, so it's super cool to learn from them and how the mission works for the ZL and it's just super awesome!!! Our house is pretty big and super nice!!! Way nicer than my last house! We have a big back yard and stuff to barbecue, with fire, along with 2 lemon trees and a huge grape vine that'll be ripe in Feb! Our new area is super great and we're gonna have a lot of success here!!!
Our ward only has 50 people that go and nobody plays the piano, now I wish I would've stuck with those piano classes, I really do regret it! But the ward is so so with the comida and not very good at helping us, but we're gonna change that! We had the best numbers I've ever had in my mission so far this past week and we're just gonna get better every week!
Oh yeah, there's also 2 misioneras, girls, in our ward. 1 is from my group from the MTC, so that's pretty cool! The weather has been super rado here, hot, hot, hot, rainy like crazy then hot, but I really do love this area! It is like a 20 min walk from the house to get to area, but with the way my short little comp walks we get there in like 10... He's crazy!!! Our area is stinkin huge!!!!! We took like a 7 min car ride past what i thought our limits were with the 2nd counselor to visit someone and then he said 11 more kilometers farther out is a few members and he said it was even bigger than that!!!!! We need a car, or at least bikes.... Oh well, my legs are gonna get huge here!!!!
I'm learning a ton from my new comp, I'm still upset I had to leave my other area, but I'm loving it here!!! Our zone is huge, huge, huge!!!!! The Zone Leaders did an intercambio with chewy, the border of Brazil, and they had to take a 2 and half hour bus ride!!!!! Locaso!
I did have to take a 4.5 hour bus ride to get to my area from the main area in Montiveideo..... It's awesome though, cuz everything is way way cheaper here!!!! Our area is the outskirts of a city and so we have 2 super markets to buy stuff and its a ton cheaper than my other area!!!!!
We did an activity today as a zone, white elephant!!! At least for those who could come, it was super fun!!! I won a Uruguay thermas! Oh yeah, in our District is the hermanas who are probably the best compañerismo, until this week, in the zone, then us, then the zone leaders and then we have 2 missionairies who don't like to work a lot. They have about 12 people that came to there rama and they are having a hard time, but I had an intercambio there on Friday and actually had a really good day.
I'm loving the mission, but the time is literally flying by!!! A lot faster than what I would like!!! But hay que trabajar a fool!! I love you guys and thank you for all your prayers, they really are necessary every day!!!!!
Hey, sounds like you guys are cold!!!! I like the cold, it's really hot here!!! REALLY REALLY HOT! Sounds like you guys are doing good and moving again, no surprise!!! That's so cool about Cam!! That's super duper awesome for him!!!!!! Love you guys a ton!!! You're all awesome! Love you!!!
My comp, Elder Pike, was in the choir for the conference and the stake activity, it was amazing. The people were in awe at the choir of our mission. They got a standing ovation both nights! Sat there were about 350 and Sunday about 500! But it kind of stunk because we had no time at all to work, but this week we're going get stuff done!!!
He's from SLC Utah and he's super awesome! I heard that he's one of the best missionaries in the whole mission and I can definately see it! He only has 8 months in the mission and 13 baptisms and he's just awesome! We are going to baptize together!!! We haven't really had time to get to know each other, but we do know that we are going to work super hard and super well together this exchange! I'm prettty excited!!!!!! I've been doing a lot better at talking with the members this week and calling people on the phone so that's good! I think that's about it!! Feliz Navidad everyone!!!!!!!!
Hola! Thank you so much for the package, it was great!!! I love the Christmas tree, it's super awesome!!!! Something I did learn though, It's better to send real food like peanut butter and stuff than candy, but I'm not complaining, I loved it!!! I'm glad you guys are doing super great!!! We are going to do skype at 3 our time, so i think thats 10 there! I'm super stoked to talk to you guys and see how everything is going, talk to you Wednesday!!!!!! Love you!!!
And the next one:
Well I'm gonna start with this..... 5 mins ago I got a call and I'm leaving on a special change tomorrow at 10 to oblisquo or something like that because there are some elders having trouble up there and I'm supposed to go and help fix it.... I think... I'm not really sure, but that's crazy I'm gonna miss my area!!! That's just an unexpected change and its to treinta tres which is super far away. Part of that zone is in Brazil.
It was a super great Christmas. I think it was in the 100s all week... I dunno, but it was hot, hot, hot!!! Now I'm headed farther up north and I'm gonna die!!!! Talking with the families on skype though really animated us as a companionship and we just went out and destroyed that day!!! We have been planning in a different way lately. Usually we just write about 12 names down to visit per day, but now were writing about 40 or 45 and that's why we saw miracles on Christmas!!! Every, every, EVERY charla we had planned that day failed, but the Lord knew we were trying our hardest and put people in our path that day! We found 6 new investigators and just had a killer day. We didn't really have a lot of other success this week, E Pike and I felt like failures cuz were supposed to be the examples, but we have or I guess now had all these plans to change that. We were gonna do some great things together this change, but I've learned a ton from him this week!!! He's taught me a lot about being a leader and I'm just glad I got to be comps with such an incredible missionary. Now I just hope that I can use what I learned from him the rest of my mission!!! That was pretty much the week, hot, Christmasy, and even more hot!!!
Thank you for all that you guys do for me!! Just talking to you guys on Christmas day gave me so much more animo just to get out there and give it my all for the next 2 years!! I'm so happy you are all doing great and Cam looks like Santa Clause mixed with a leprechaun. He's really taking on the computer programmer. I'm just glad I can't grow that much hair, its already annoying enough to shave once a day! Thanks for the email and the package and all the other stuff you do for me!!!! I love you guys a ton!!! I'm excited to hear the responses to that video!!!!
And the last one:
Bueno, I am in treinta tres ahora, in the area Obelisco A. My comp is Elder Arellano, another Peruvian comp, but he's super awesome!!! He is the DL here and has 15 months in the mission. He is a super capo!!! We also live with the 2 Zone Leaders, so it's super cool to learn from them and how the mission works for the ZL and it's just super awesome!!! Our house is pretty big and super nice!!! Way nicer than my last house! We have a big back yard and stuff to barbecue, with fire, along with 2 lemon trees and a huge grape vine that'll be ripe in Feb! Our new area is super great and we're gonna have a lot of success here!!!
Our ward only has 50 people that go and nobody plays the piano, now I wish I would've stuck with those piano classes, I really do regret it! But the ward is so so with the comida and not very good at helping us, but we're gonna change that! We had the best numbers I've ever had in my mission so far this past week and we're just gonna get better every week!
Oh yeah, there's also 2 misioneras, girls, in our ward. 1 is from my group from the MTC, so that's pretty cool! The weather has been super rado here, hot, hot, hot, rainy like crazy then hot, but I really do love this area! It is like a 20 min walk from the house to get to area, but with the way my short little comp walks we get there in like 10... He's crazy!!! Our area is stinkin huge!!!!! We took like a 7 min car ride past what i thought our limits were with the 2nd counselor to visit someone and then he said 11 more kilometers farther out is a few members and he said it was even bigger than that!!!!! We need a car, or at least bikes.... Oh well, my legs are gonna get huge here!!!!
I'm learning a ton from my new comp, I'm still upset I had to leave my other area, but I'm loving it here!!! Our zone is huge, huge, huge!!!!! The Zone Leaders did an intercambio with chewy, the border of Brazil, and they had to take a 2 and half hour bus ride!!!!! Locaso!
I did have to take a 4.5 hour bus ride to get to my area from the main area in Montiveideo..... It's awesome though, cuz everything is way way cheaper here!!!! Our area is the outskirts of a city and so we have 2 super markets to buy stuff and its a ton cheaper than my other area!!!!!
We did an activity today as a zone, white elephant!!! At least for those who could come, it was super fun!!! I won a Uruguay thermas! Oh yeah, in our District is the hermanas who are probably the best compañerismo, until this week, in the zone, then us, then the zone leaders and then we have 2 missionairies who don't like to work a lot. They have about 12 people that came to there rama and they are having a hard time, but I had an intercambio there on Friday and actually had a really good day.
I'm loving the mission, but the time is literally flying by!!! A lot faster than what I would like!!! But hay que trabajar a fool!! I love you guys and thank you for all your prayers, they really are necessary every day!!!!!
Hey, sounds like you guys are cold!!!! I like the cold, it's really hot here!!! REALLY REALLY HOT! Sounds like you guys are doing good and moving again, no surprise!!! That's so cool about Cam!! That's super duper awesome for him!!!!!! Love you guys a ton!!! You're all awesome! Love you!!!
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