VIVA LAS VEGAS

Hey Everybody!

How is it going? I am writing you from Las Vegas I have been here for a few days now and it is going really well! So I will start from the beginning! Thursday I left from the MTC and headed for the Airport. We arrived there I called my family which is so great! I loved hearing all of your voices I was glad to hear that you guys are doing so well I love you SO MUCH! After My phone call I went and got on the plane and landed in Las Vegas. We got to the luggage pick up and I grabbed my first bag and then I waited for the second one....and waited...and waited... It never came. We went and talked to the baggage claim people and they said that it was scanned in downstairs which means that it came up the ramp...which means someone took it....:( so that was definitely not a fun way to enter the field. Fortunately the one suitcase I had contained all my pants and white shirts and garments so I was able to work which was great and such a blessing. The other bag had all my p day stuff and some micellaneous things and all my medicine and vitamins, oh and my socks... haha. So I have been borrowing some other elders socks which is really nice them. So after 5 days if no one has brought my bag back I can call and they will begin to reimberse me. So it will all work out. So after the airport I went and met the mission president and got some food which is always wonderful. Then I met my new companions. Elder Tuione and Elder Cunningham I am in a threesome. It is great I have once again been blessed with great companions once again! One was called spanish and the other english. So we talked a lot of english which is not good for my spanish but that is ok. Because I am teaching people the gospel here in english or spanish it does not matter the gospel is the same. So l arrived on friday and guess what I had a baptism saturday haha. My companions had been teaching her and it was time for her baptism! It was such a great spirtual experience. Obviously I didn't really teach her at all. But I still felt that love for her and so happy for her that she now has the gospel in her life. Her name was Roberta Johnson. I had another amazing experience yesterday! We had an appointment with a woman named Erin. I say her at church in the morning and introduced my self (everyone already knows my companions.) So we went over to her apartment which isn't in the best area and you can tell that people who are living there aren't really doing to well. But we went in and started teaching her about the scriptures. This was one of the most humbling experiences in my life. We were talking about what does she hope for in the future. She said she is wanting her husband to get our of jail. I have no idea why he is there. She is a mother of 3. all 11 and younger I think. And she also does not have a job. She told us how she would try to get to an interview and she didn't have the money to pay the fair on the bus. She said how she would beg the bus driver to let it pass but he of course had to say no. And it was such a reality check for me. I mean really I honestly knew that this kind of stuff happened in the world. But I have never met anyone in that situation ya know? And to hear someone tell how hard there life is. It was interesting, very spiritual...We told her how diving into the scriptures and doing what the Lord wants you to do is how we are able to recieve peace in our lives especially when things are hard. When we rely on the Lord when things are good and bad we are going to be blessed. We are promised that. She loves the Bible and reads all the time so we challenged her to start reading out of the BOM. One chapter a day. She agreed and she has comitted to baptism on the 21st of april. So she is striving to hit that date.

Leaving the MTC was a very different experience. It felt like I was going to be in there forever! But now that I am out here it seems so long ago that I was in the MTC. It is real now and I am helping people find Christ even though I am not a good teacher yet and I struggle with street contacting and stuff like that. I am still giving my all and doin my best. I know that the Lord has blessed me so much and I really do love all of you so much for your support and everything. Thank you! My new P day is on mondays so expect an email every monday while I'm in Las Vegas. I have no idea how long I will be here. But I know this is where the Lord wants me and I am so excited for that. Love you all so much thanks again for everything and all your support!

Con Amor Elder Oliver

 

I leave TUESDAY! well....I am supposed to...

Hey Everybody!!!!

It is Elder Oliver again! how are all of you?? It has been another exciting week at the MTC! I want to apologize first...I forgot to write in my last email that my week is a little different my last week! I am so sorry My P-day is saturday! not FRIDAY! I am so sorry if you were worried that something had happened to me! But I promise that I am ok! hah. So this week Has really been the same as any other week. I am learning so many good things! I am finding great talks! And learning so much in the scriptures! I have started reading my book of mormon in spanish! It is dificult and I do not know a lot of the words but I can usually fumble my way through and it is so fun! I am reading The Scriptures in another language! How amazing is that! I am so blessed to have the gift of tongues because lets be real there is no way I could learn another language if it was not for the Lord. So...I know that the question that is burning on everyone's mind is do I know when I am leaving the MTC and the answer is no.......I have no idea as of right now. I have not recieved any word on my Visa. No word on a reassignment....I have absolutely no idea. So Me elder Richardson, Butler, Jessop the 4 of us that are going to the Mexico City, Mexico North Mission are just waiting patientally We know that what ever is going on it is because it is the Lord's will. And where ever we end up and when ever we end up there we will be happy because we know we will be where the Lord wants us when he wants us there. yesterday we had in-field orientation! that is where we sit in a few different rooms and learn about what things we are going to experience and things we are going to need to know when we enter the field. I was dreading going to it because it is no joke all day about 13 hours haha. But it actually was good and I felt bad for having so much doubt in something that I knew deep down was going to help me. If there is one thing I have learned since coming on my mission it is that attitude is everything.When you act and feel like you are able to do things that others might say you can't do or you don't think you are able to do. Have faith in your self and more importantly have faith in the Lord. I know that If i am living and obeying the commandments and rules of the gospel and I am doing eveything I can to make my goal, learning spanish, learning doctorine, having faith that my family and friends would be taken care of when I get back I know that the Lord is goin to take care of the rest. Because he really does love me and when I try my best and fall to the ground exhausted I know he will pick me up and carry me the rest of the way. I am so grateful for that knowledge knowing that the savior is by side always in good times and bad. So I am so excited that I could be leaving the MTC this upcoming week so I can start bringing the light to the people of the world. I love all of you! Miranda thank you so much for the cupcakes they were amazing! And Campbells thank you for the cookies they were delicious also! all of your letters and packages really mean so much! I love all of you and thanks for everything you do! I really do think about all of you all the time and how lucky I am to the have the support I do! :) Love you all!!

Con Amor Elder Oliver

Ten Days!

Hey everybody!

ITS ME!!!!! ELDER OLIVER AGAIN! REPORTING FROM THE MTC ABOUT ANOTHER B-E-A-U-TIFUL WEEK! haha I hope all of you enjoyed that as much as I did! So this week was good! a lot of fun and exciting things have happened! First off I want to say thanks to everyone who wrote me and prays for me and even has an occasional thought about me. I know this might sound strange but I feel all those things in my life as a missionary and I am so grateful to have my wonderful family! My Mom and Dad and Mandy and Delaney and all my extended family! and all my friends and their families and just everyone I have ever known! I really am so grateful for the relationships I have! And thanks everyone for the support!

So Sunday we had another amazing fireside! I am sure many of you know who Alex Boye is! I knew the name but I didn't know really much about him! But if you don't know who he is he is a convert from england and he is an amazing singer he was in a boy band in Europe where he was really popular. But he ended up leaving all that and moved to utah and joined the Motab. He has a bunch of CD's and he really is amazing. he started off with a song and it was amazing. Then he started talking about how he was a kid in London and how he was a troubled child and how his boss was mormon. And he eventually became a "project" haha. It was so funny. And the sister missionaries came over and they changed his life. It really was an amazing talk cause he had the whole place laughing histarically! then all of a sudden it just switched to extremely spiritual! it was Incredible. He talked about how his missionaries are apart of him. He thinks about them every single day. And he talked about how we are going to be like that for other people. We are going to bring this great and wonderful thing into their lives. And we need to take our job seriously and no be afraid to be bold. We cannot be afriad to be bold. I loved that part. This is something that is so important and so powerful for us we need to act like it when we talk about it. We need to be excited. Then he closed by singing how Great thou art. I don't know if that is the actual name of the hymn. but it says it a lot haha. And it was incredible. He walked around the whole gym. and was shaking peoples hands and stuff like that. It really was amazing one of my favorite parts of the MTC!

So and yesterday everybody in my district that is going to the states (all the sisters and Elder Mander) got their Travel plans for the 20th. the four Mexico elders are still waiting for theirs. So We still have about ten days before the 20th but seeing the others get there plans really made it real that we are leaving soon. and it made us excited and all we want to see are those travel plans. It is crazy I can't believe I am so close! But I am so excited even though my spanish isn't great I am ready to go out and give my all so Keep praying for my visa! and We will see what happens. I love you all so much! I think about you all everyday! Thanks again for all the support and all the letters! It means so much and treasure everyone of them! Thanks so much Love you all!

Con Amor Elder Oliver

Holland.... no biggie

Hey everybody!

How you are you?? I hope everyone is doing just so great in the outside world haha! I was talking to Elder Richardson about the MTC and it is really the weirdest experience. It feels like camp like EFY on sterioids. It is awesome and  I feel like I am growing more and more each day it really is amazing! So this was a  really awesome week not going to lie. So saturday I have a thing called trc where we teach volunteers who are members about the church and how they can better strengthen there testimony! So Saturday I went to TRC as usual and as I walked in, guess who I saw there....CHASE AnD PAUL!!!!!!!!!!! It was amazing! It was so great to see a familiar face! Especially one that I had not seen in two years. It was awesome and I really was flying high all day beacause of it! So thank you guys! you really set my week off on a great start! I am really upset Kacie B. got sent home. but actually I don't care too much ben seems like a jerk haha. Anyway back to my week! So tuesday we have a devotional every  night where get to see and hear from a speaker. So we were all just chilling singing hymns as we usually do in the MTC haha. Then like all of a sudden I felt different like excited I had no idea why, then a second later everybody stood up in the gym because right after I had felt that feeling of excitement I looked at the stage and Elder Holland was strolling in on the stage! It was amazing, you could just feel it in the air...I don't know how to describe it but I knew in that one moment that he was a man of God! I knew it before but it was just re-enforced again. When he was here earlier in my MTC experience he just kind of bore his testimony. This was a legit talk he gave us and I wrote about 4 pages of notes...It was awesome. h e talked about how we have 200 hundred years of tradition on our shoulders. And how we needed to come back a different person. He said that if one conversion is all we need to have a successful mission and that is our selves. If we do not come back as a different person then we were not effective missionaries I need to burn the doctorine in my soul. He talked about the high number of misionaries that are falling away after there mission and how we need to make sure we are not one of them. He said that people in the world look at mssionaries as perfect. We all know they are not but they give off that perception because they are so powerful and worthy. We need to make sure we are that and that we continue to stay that way after the mission because if we don't they why are we even here? how can we ask people to do things we can't. It really was amazing. and he  was yelling at us in the holland way.! It was amazing! So I am out of time. But Just know that I am so grateful for the letters and support always they mean so much to me! I love it. thanks for everything! happy BIRTHDAY COLE! I KNOW ITS LATE BUT I LOVE YOU! haha. have a good week everyone I love you all so much!

Con Amor Elder Oliver

Did you want to see pictures of Josh???? Me too!

 Josh sent these home the other day! Please enjoy!

Josh and his companion Elder Richardson

Josh's favorite pose

Elder Oliver and Elder Richardson with their roommates Elder Dove and Elder Schuler

For Cole

Mountain Shirt! All the rage at the MTC