Jan 28, 2014

Hey everyone! So this was pretty awesome! We won the little competition and we had 3 baptisms on Sunday!!! Milagros, Tamara and Yamila! It was an incredible day!!!!! The first time I got to baptize someone and I baptized 3 people!!! It was incredible because Yamila quit smoking on Saturday and still hasn't smoked since!!! And now her mom and dad want to get married and quit smoking as well!! It's just super awesome!

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

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!

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!!!

It's hot, hot, hot!!!

Well it is super super duper hot here!!!! We are melting!!! It's like 33 celsius or something here and I think in our house it's about 10 degrees hotter.... I literally get in bed at night and just sweat myself to sleep. It kinda sucks, but I'll get over it. The worst part is I can't use my sunscreen because it turns my shirt yellow and the stains are super hard to get out....

We had the baptism of Alejandro this week and it went great!!! There was also a ward baptism so we had more members there and a little fiesta after, so that was nice. This week was rough with food because we didn't have time to ask this Sunday cuz we were busy with investigators but this week is looking better!

The temporary missionary was 16 and spoke English, born in Provo, lived in Argentina and now Uruguay. His parents are from Argentina. He was super cool and super rich, so he bought us all food, so that was super cool. We invited him to the Christmas conference tomorrow. But he left Jueves and Elder Contreras de Chile came in his place. Lets just say Chilenos have a very distinct accent and talk very very fast, but he's super cool! He and his comp were having huge problems with their branch pres so they had to leave, he was super upset, but what are you gonna do? My comps are super annoying in the house still but its ok. This change my comp se va and E' Contreras se va. Elder Huiara and I stay and 2 gringos are comig!!!! Finally English, which kinda sucks cuz I wanted to speak Spanish my whole mission, but it'll be kinda nice. Elder Pyke is going to be my new comp as DL. All i know is he's a gringo and this is gonna be his 6th change. He trained his 4th and 5th so he's a capo! Oh I had an intercambio with one of the ZL's this week so it was super cool to learn from him. I think tha'ts all this week, other than its super freakin hot, hot, hot!!!!!

Normal Days

Yes, I lost my umbrella! :( It stinks, but oh well. It's been cold, hot, rainy and even hotter this week. It's wild!!!! Our convert is doing great, and we're having a lot better investigators now, and a lot more. Our numbers were horrible, but we've been seeing miracles in our area. The coolest is a recent convert of ours, Romina, is 16 and she is the only member in her family, and her parents haven't been letting her go to church because she needs to study for the finals. So we decided to teach her about charity, especially for her parents, so she put it to use and could come to church this weekend!!!!

We are definitely getting lunch everyday, menos this Sunday, but thats ok. Our DoM should do it, but we've been doing it lately. Just going around after sacrament and asking everyone we can.

It is super awesome that I'm the only English speaker in the house, but occasionally it's annoying when I can't understand anything and it's been a couple of headaches, but oh well....But really I want a comp that doesn't speak English my whole mission if that's possible, just so I can be pro when I come home and need to learn English otra vez. 

The mate sets are super cool down here, they're pretty expensive, but there are some that are super cool!!!! I could buy you one and send it to you if you want....

The dogs are so annoying!!! It's sad that I've seen so many dead dogs, but what can you expect when there's like 10,000 in one little city...

Elder Pin definitely taught me a lot, he's incredible and he only has like 5 changes in the mission... He just taught me how to love the people and work with urgency and just to trust in the lord! My comp goes home on Dec 19 and I'm not to upset. I'm actually excited. He's a little trunkie, his minds not in the mission, and he used to be a zone leader so I feel like he feels better than most missionaries and we're having our problems right now, but we're getting a lot better! I would be fine leaving or staying, I want to experience as much of Uruguay as I can but I'm fine either way. E' Pins lookin out for me and he heard that the ZL's want me to stay, but he heard that I'm leaving. I have no idea. But he's making sure that my comp is un capo so I can continue to learn how to be the best possible. I signed my papers the other day to stay here. We had a zone wide change Friday and I was with an E' de my district E' Allen. we did a good job together so that was good.

Saturday we started to fast after a little lunch and it was horrible!!! It was by far the hottest day of my mission. Then Sunday when we ended the fast I was super sick. I think I was dehydrated, but it's all better now.  I'm not gonna lie, it's a little hard knowing I won't be home for Christmas, but it's awesome being here. Tiring but awesome!!!

That's super good Brooklyn is fine, but I'll keep praying for Liberty and I can have the District pray for her too!!! It's super awesome though that Cam keeps doing great! It's good to hear my letters are helping people and that my family is still as crazy as ever and gonna bring 30 suitcases on an airplane..... I'm gonna need the new address when you get there. Oh and for future reference, I hear the best way to send packages is through US post service, "Ayuda Familiar" and maybe a picture of Jesus on the package. It's super good to hear from you and a love you guys a ton!!!

Answering Mom's Questions:

Last weeks letter was shorter than usual and I realized that Bailey hadn't really told us much about the area and culture.  I asked him several questions and this is the letter that I received (Obviously, awesome is the word of the day.  I think Bailey is forgetting his English vocabulary:))



This week was a great week! Our numbers are coming back up. The weather is crazy like Utah but pretty much it's been super duper hot! Which is good because I accidentally lost my umbrella, but I mean it is killer hot!

Our investigators are doing super awesome and on track to be baptized, but with Cristian age 16 so still needs to talk to his parents and hes a little scared to do that... Claudio is doing super awesome! He actually got to baptize these 2 jovens for the other group of missionaries the other day, so that was super awesome!!!! And then this Sunday he blessed the sacrament!!! We want to go to the temple with him when it opens again after the 2nd because the missionaries can go and baptize for the dead. Solo the hombres and we can't be baptized, but its still super awesome!!!!

We definitely have been having lunch every day because we've been asking everyone!!!My Spanish is coming along super awesome because everyone in the house is speaking Spanish so its difficult but super awesome!!!

The food down here is awesome!! We eat a lot of pasta which I love, and this "barbecue" stuff called asado! It's chewie but pretty good!! The other day though we had blood sausage and intestines of something, let's just say I'm not a huge fan!!! People are obsessed with their mate down here!!!! They always have their cups with the straws in the hand and there big mug of boiling water in their arm, always!!!! It's kind if an art to do all this, but we cant drink it in the mission. But I  am definitely gonna buy a nice mate set before I go home!!!

I am in a country area, but close to the city, the airports like a 7 minute bus ride. It's pretty dirty and there are tons of dogs, everywhere! But I love it. You might be able to look it up by ,canelones, aeroparque. There are green fields and some people have grass.... I had an intercambio with our DL E' Pin and it changed my mission!!! He is so awesome and I learned so much from him in 1 day!! It was incredible!!! We invited 3 people with 2 fechas, to be baptized this day!!! It was an incredible experience. I love my comp, but he's a little trunkie,,,, solo thinking about home, because he goes home in 3 weeks, but it makes it hard to work like I want...

Oh yeah this old lady spanked me the other day because it was windy and I was fixing my tie and she thought I was playing with it so that was super awkward! The mission is going great and I'm lovin it and love you all!!!!

I get emails from people that I want emails from for the most part, because I only have an hour, so I don't have time for a lot, so I'm fine, but people can send me written letters and packages. Packages take forever, but I love them and letters...it's better and easier for me.

If you can send some regular size pictures of the family and see if my friends can get some too that would be awesome because everyone has this little photo albums for members and stuff and they love it!!! Thanks, I hope I get your package by Christmas too, I think they are going to hold the packages until the 17th for Christmas, but I'm excited!!! I love you guys a ton!!!

Short and sweet letter from today:)

Enotonces, this week was difficult!!! And last week!!! We've only had 2 new investigators, but both are going to be baptized for sure!!! One is a joven, 17, and scared to talk to his mom and ask for permission to be baptized, but Claudio is a family friend and is going to talk to them with us!!!

Despues, we have Rodrigo. We talked with him for the first time yesterday after Claudio sent us a message saying I have a friend who has had some problems in his life and is really interested in learning more about the church! He is awesome and I'm sure he's going to be baptized!

We did have almuerzo everyday this week because we begged so that was awesome!!!

Elder Pin, the new elder in the house, is our district leader. He only has 5 cambios in hte mission but he's super awesome!!! Elder Ha was definitely not the best leader. Actually, our zone leaders heard that he's not going to be leading any more...

This week has been cold and hot and windy!!! I think it was Friday that the wind was terrible and it was crazy hot and the wind was just a hot wind!!!! Plus it was picking up all the little rocks in the street and throwing them at us. It's been an interesting and difficult week, but it's always a good time!

You guys are nuts!!! Moving back to Indiana!!!!!!! I never thought I would hear that!!!  And Perry? At least they'll be speaking English! I bet Brig and Clara are happy to go back for Talmage and Bri.

 I wish I could've told you this earlier, but with packages the oficinas told me you should just write "Ayuda Familiar" and that's it because this way they send it through earlier....

I think I'm gonna start taking bets with all the missionaries I know of where you tguys are going to leave when I get home!!!! Love you guys and thank you!!!!