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

A Cool Experience and a picture:)

Alrighty... So, this week has been a week to remember!!! We started out with the hike to the Quebrado de los Cuervos here in 33. It's one of the biggest "mountains" they have in Uruguay. It was actually a super fun hike and we had a great time!!! Then the week was pretty normal up until Thurs!!

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:))

This drawing was done by a child in Elder Oliver's ward because he thought he would be leaving the area and he wanted to give him something.

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!!!!

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!!!

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!

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!!!!

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!!!!