Week 2 - MTC

Hey Everyone!!!!!

How is it going!!! Thanks for the Jazz updates I really do appreciate it!! And Norman don't I loved your letter! That is a bummer they lost in double ot!! but oh well sounds like they played hard! So I have been here a week!!! Its crazy it seems like have been here so long! I am really liking the MTC a lot of it is hard! Especially trying to teach our investigators in spanish. It is amazing how much spanish I have learned in one week! but when I am teaching there are so many things that me and Elder Richardson want to say but we just don't know how too. I am not worrying about the language so much because as long as I work on it and try my best it will come eventually! I have mainly been trying to focus on the doctorine. because if I do not know the doctorine in english how can I be able to explain it in spanish! So my focus has been studying preach my gospel and the scriptures dillegently. I am so far behind the other missionaries when it comes to knowing the gospel! You guys know I have only been like super active for like a year now. So it has been very hard for me. But I am getting better. I read 2 Cor 1:7 all the time and gives me so much comfort. Anyway to the fun stuff! Me and Elder Richardson are getting along Great! my district is great too! sometimes we have arguements about being respectful but I try to stay out of it and set an example by studying when I need to study and helping whenever I can help. I am working on charity and love because that is what my investigadors need to feel while I am teaching them. IT IS SO IMPORTANT!!! So that's what I have been working on. I love my roomates elder Dove and Elder Shuler. Especially Elder Shuler! me and him would be great friends if we were on the outs. They are both going to my mission! SO hopefully we can be companions someday???????????????? PERHAPS...... ha hopefully me and Elder Shuler Can be I really do love him haha. anyway...It is amazing how much I am learning and know this is where I need to be! I want to go to mexico right now!!!!!!!!!! even if i would suck at the language Thats ok the spirit will help me out! It is the best companion in the world!!!!!!!  Anyway I love everyone! If you sent me a letter thank you! Les

 Quiero Elder Oliver 

FIRST EMAIL!!!!!

HOLA FAMILIA!!!

So it seems like forever that I said bye to you guys. It really has been a hard interesting first few days! So I will start from the top! When I left you guys I went through and received my tag and information. I was then taken to my classroom where I will learn Spanish and mission and lesson stuff for the next 9 weeks. The teacher only speaks Spanish for most of the time....so ya...it’s hard to understand. But I feel like I have learned a lot already! My companion is Elder Richardson. He is from Ogden and he is serving in my mission as well! Which is great! We get along very well. We are very different though. He was in debate in high school and is not in to sports so much. But it’s all good. He has a strong testimony which is wonderful. I have felt out of place a little because so many of the missionaries in my district are very educated in the gospel. Although I have a strong testimony I lack the knowledge of the scriptures so I have been working very hard on that. And the language. haha. But I am loving it! I have learned so much and I am just trying to be a sponge haha. So fun story for ya. We taught our first investigator on Friday!!!!!!!!!! IN SPANISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ha it was really hard to understand him and me and Elder Richardson struggled to get our message across but it was still good! If we put our faith in the Lord he will not let us down. After we taught Rafael, we met in the classroom with just the missionaries in my district. There are two other companionships and one sister companionship of 3. But we were discussing goals that we could set to get better. And Hermana Escobar. (or sister) Said we should try to respect each other just a little more. And I don't know what happened, but I felt so much love for her and my district. I felt bad that she had to ask for respect. No one should have to ask for that. And seriously just started like talking to my district for ten minutes about how we are flawed and we are all trying to become more Christ like. And I know that am kind of goofy and that I try to keep it fun but I also need to learn when to tone it down. And since I have only been active for like a year now I still have a lot to learn. And after I was done with my schpeal....  I felt the spirit so strong and felt so much love for the people in my district. And I said that we were all in this together and the more love that we can show each other, the more united we will be as a district. And the better missionaries we will become. It has been such an incredible 3 days. It’s amazing how much I have grown. I am trying so hard to learn and put faith in the Lord. I feel down sometimes but that's ok. We are supposed to feel down sometimes because when we rise up the feeling of happiness completely over powers the down feeling. I am doing this not for me, but for the investigators in the Mexico or in the Mtc. I always have them on my mind and I am always trying to keep them in my prayers and in my heart because it is so important to be looking for things to help them. I know that I am going to grow a stronger testimony on my mission. That is a given. Now it is up to me to become the best instrument for the Lord I can be. Because I am not the one who teaches them it is the Lord who does it through his Spirit. So I am trying to feel the Spirit as much as I can, so that I can better know how to make my investigators feel it. I love you guys so much! and I miss you like crazy. but I know this is where I need to be. I was sad the jazz lost....Harris should not have the ball at the end Millsap every time. even if it is a three... we have seen him do it before! ha anyway...I love you guys! Keep me posted on how things are going at home. I love you Se la Va

Love, Elder Oliver

See you in a little while

Hi friends! No word from Josh yet, but I've got to put something on this blog haha. We successfully dropped Josh off at the MTC on Wed. after a nice J-dawg. He was so excited! I encourage you all to write him while he's in there and keep him in your prayers. We are so proud of Josh and love him very very much!!!