D&C 20:10-12

10 And thy brother Oliver shall continue in bearing my name before the world, and also to the church. And he shall not suppose that he can say enough in my cause; and lo, I am with him to the end.

11 In me he shall have glory, and not of himself, whether in weakness or in strength, whether in bonds or free;

12 And at all times, and in all places, he shall open his mouth and declare my gospel as with the voice of a trump, both day and night. And I will give unto him strength such as is not known among men.

Monday, January 27, 2014

Picture Overload

Christmas:  Can you tell it was about the food for Hayden?  
 He was thrilled to be having a German Dinner...
 On Christmas Day...
 In Spain.
 It just doesn't get any better than that.  Many thanks to this sweet couple for hosting the missionaries.
His Christmas package didn't make it in time for Christmas.  However, he did get it in time for 3 Kings Day.
Enjoying some relaxation time on Christmas day.
 Decorating the apartment.
 Preparing to leave for his new area
Saying goodbye at the Train Station.

More Street Performing?

I have finally updated the pictures! I figured out how to transfer my pictures from my camera to a usb drive through our little dvd player, and now I can send photos, so enjoy:)

This week we taught 8 lessons. That is not very many. This place is in dire need of the gospel. However, almost every minute of last week we were working our booties off. I have slept well this week.

On Friday, we did something interesting. As you can tell, this area is a little slow. We have trouble finding people to teach. So, the other elders (Dansie, Proctor, and Oldroyd) volunteered me to go and play violin on the busy street here. So, I played for an hour, and they talked to more people than we ever have in that hour. It was quite interesting, and we got some good Gospel talk going on. A bunch of people tried to give me money, it was pretty sweet (but I declined politely to each one of them) Now I know how I am going to pay for college--I would have gotten probably about 15€ in one hour. That is pretty good.
These gloves were specially created for fiddling in the cold.  

Saturday, we did church tours. We brought a white board out into the street, and directed people over to the chapel. We gave some tours, and found some really golden people. The best part of it was, we were taking shifts on the street and in the chapel, and both companionships had contacted the same guy walking around the street. He was a Catholic priest, and he was really impressed to find 4 young men leave everything behind to come and preach the word, to serve, and to heal. It turns out he was on his way to run the local Mass, and he totally gave a shout-out to us in Mass. (We heard from a friend that was there). HOW COOL IS THAT?? The Lord is seriously blessing this area, and we are privileged to be a part of it.



I'm excited to hear about the ward split! New things are happening in AZ!

This email won't be very long today. I have had to download and upload a lot of stuff.

Os quiero muchisimo!
Elder Oliver

 Churros y Chocolate
 Dock at night

 They live right by the train station.
His six month celebration.

Monday, January 20, 2014

25%

Wow.
I feel like this week blew by. And so have the last 6 months. I can't believe that I have been out for a half a year now. Time really is flying by. It is slipping through the fingers.

The members here are keeping us fed, so that is nice. There are a lot of Muslim people in this city. Like, so many, that a conservative would probably have a heart attack. Don't worry, there are a lot of things that would make liberals want to leave here as well. As for me, they are the nicest people in this city, and we have had some interesting encounters. We have really struggled with our investigators here, (have have been here for almost two weeks, and have personally met only 2 of the 3 current investigators). So, we decided to do something different. We now work in a soup kitchen every Wednesday and Friday, so we have been able to use our time better. And now, we don't have to worry about getting robbed, because we have made friends with many homeless people, and they will be our silent guardians stationed around the city, haha. But this will be really fun, and a great opportunity to share our time and energy.

I heard that Mom made some awesome orange rolls. ( you should send me that recipe, because Elder Dansie is a fantastic cook!) My comp makes us all breakfast and lunch everyday, and we have really bonded as a district. There are no problems between us, and we all have the same goal: find, teach repentance through Jesus Christ, and baptize for the remission of sins. We have fasted and prayed, we have faith, and we are going to work as hard as we can, so that we can find those that the Lord has prepared.

I haven't taken very many photos, and I am trying to figure out how to make my camera compatible with these computers that we use.

Last week we were SO. FLIPPING. BUSY. We were working our butts off. But, in all, we taught 9 lessons. Not very many, BUT, we worked at the soup kitchen, and organized a stake activity. Which turned into a fiasco.

Apart from the Saturday fiasco, everything else is going well here. Nobody has gotten jumped, and we are all still working hard.

I hope that all of my friends around the world are having as good a time as I am.

¡Os quiero mucho!
Elder Oliver

Monday, January 13, 2014

My Legs Aren't European! Week 26

We have a running joke in our home that Hayden is Superman.  Cooper (age 6) pretends to believe that Hayden is really Superman, and he tries to convince all of his friends that it's true.  He usually shows them this picture (photographed by Ben Leavitt), and that's all she wrote. 

Today Cooper wrote the following to Hayden in his email:  Dear Hayden,  You're my best super hero.  I love you very much.  And you are my super man!!!!! Love, Cooper

Hayden's reply made my day:  I love you little dude. Keep working towards developing your superpowers. Someday, you will realize what you really are, what you can do. Elder Oliver

 3 Year Old Elder Oliver, already trying to figure out his super powers.



And now, on to the main email!

So, new area. New people. New ties. Dirty old streets.

We have had quite the week. I had to say farewell to the people in Torrevieja. That was hard. I didn't get to say goodbye to L, and that was really hard. There are lots of things that needed to get done, lots of things that we were rushing around trying to finish.  Didn't get it all done, because I had to leave Torrevieja a day earlier than everybody else had to leave their areas.

Let me explain. Elder L is going to train a new missionary in Torrevieja, so, on Tuesday he needed to catch a bus to Málaga to go pick him up, which would leave me solo in Torrevieja. That can't happen. So, I had to pack up a day early and we took the bus to Murcia. I spent the day there with another companionship and we went and visited a bunch of people, namely a guy with with a pet pigeon, and some really bizzare statues. It was interesting, to say the least.

Then on Wednesday, we caught the bus at 10:30 to Málaga. We made a stop in Granada for 30 min, and I was suprised to see my dad (Elder R, they call their trainer their dad), who gave me nice little Christmas present (chocolate:)   ) Seriously, it was so nice to see him, it had only been 6 weeks, but oh well. Then we finished up the journey to Málaga, and met my new comp there. His name is Elder Dansie. He is trying to learn how to cook now. He's pretty good at it, and he makes food for all of the elders in the piso. Which is, Me, him, and Elder Proctor and Elder Oldroyd. 2 Utahns, 2 Arizonans. It's pretty awesome, we're all like, best friends already. We all get along, and in the 3 days that we have been here, some interesting things have happened. We have met some seriously interesting people. This will be a sweet couple of months.

Alrighty, so Algeciras is near Gibraltar. We are going to go in a few weeks, and we are going to see the monkeys. That will be flippin sweet. There is a member that drives us everywhere here, he's a champ. He is going to take us to Gibraltar. And then we will see Africa. because Our city is basically in a valley, and we can't see squat, because it is always foggy. 

As far as investigators, this area really doesn't have much. We are going to have to work our booties off to get some baptisms here. There is really a truckload of work to do here. But, that is a good thing. That is why the Lord has called us here. And all four of us are really hard workers, so hopefully we'll be able to help make a difference here. 

The other elders had a baptism here on Friday. It was a good start to the transfer, because they are both new. (They had a person ready by the other elders, so it really wasn't theirs, but it was still cool) We went to the chapel really early, and started filling up the font/birthing tub. However, there was no hot water, so Elder Dansie and I were boiling water on the stove, and tossing it into the tub to try and help. It didn't. Elder Proctor did the ordinance, and afterwards, I played a little musical number on the violin. By the way, Elder Dansie had a dream that he learned to play the violin, 2 months ago, and then we get assigned as companions! That is pretty cool. I guess I need to teach him a bit now.

We had a good p-day today, we went to a couple of places, I got a super cheap skinny tie, and a sock tie. Now my collection is complete. Haha. I tried on some cheap European dress pants at Zara. I figured out that my legs aren't European. I cam out of the dressing room, looked in the mirror, and realized that I looked like I was just wearing fancy spandex. I didn't buy them.

And this place is sketchy. Like, we are afraid of contacting people. Especially at night. So, I am glad I don't have a shiny watch. Elder Dansie and his last comp got robbed a few weeks ago. Sooo, yeah. This will be an adventure. Just pray a little extra hard for us.

My Spanish has gotten a heck of a lot better. I am speaking better than ever, and I got told by 2 people (natives) that my Spanish sounded really good, and sounds SPANISH. So, I am happy. And I continue to work hard.

Alrighty. I love you guys, keep up the hard work. I hope I answered your questions.

¡Os quiero mucho!
Elder Oliver

ps, Brother M delivered my Christmas package to me while I was in Murcia, in between my areas, which was another adventure.

Monday, January 6, 2014

Farewell Torrevieja!

I hoping this week would never come. But I knew it would. I was hoping I would see somebody enter the waters of baptism in this area. But I have done my best for the people to prepare for that moment. This has been difficult. But, there are many things that I have to look forward to.

I have learned so much from my companion. It is like he has been my second trainer. It will be hard to see him off this week. However I will have a new companion, Elder Dansie. I have heard very good things about Elder Dansie. Apparently he is very organized. That is good. I will definitely learn from him this Transfer (I have actually been fairly organized out in the field though). He trained one of my friends from the MTC.

Anyways. There are good things that are going to happen in Torrevieja. This Sunday, there were 5 ward missionaries called and set apart, which is great news. There are also a lot of new investigators coming out of the dark. We have been able to help many people develop greater faith in Jesus Christ. Even though nobody has decided to enter into the waters of baptism and take that step through the door that opens an infinity of possibilities.

Here is to hoping that they will progress better after I leave. 

So, the ward in Algeciras is just a little bit smaller than that of Torrevieja. We have our work cut out for us. Have you looked up the city yet? Of course, but It is flippin cool. I'll be able to see Africa from my area! Qué guay!!  I don't really have much information other than that. You will have to wait till next Monday to get my address. Sorry. 

I'll have to resist the temptation to swim to Africa. That'll be difficult, haha:)
Except that I will end up in Morocco, and probably get killed. That cancels out the temptation pretty well. 

I love getting your updates, and hearing how everybody is doing. 

¡Os quiero mucho!
Elder Oliver