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, March 24, 2014

Crazy Week!

Okay, I am going to have to fill you guys in on this last week, next week. Because today we are in Sevilla, and we have a tri-zone conference tomorrow. It is going to be a riot. That being said, Sevilla is definitely the coolest city I have ever been to in my life. And I don't have a lot of time to email, so I will have to answer your questions and book it back out.

We only have one investigator here now. We had almost dropped her a few weeks ago because she did not want to read, pray, or come to church. Those are obviously important things in developing a testimony of the gospel. However, she recently resolved to come to church every week, and now she is progressing really well. She is reading, praying, and coming to church. Now, she just needs to get baptized! But, as we all know, baptism is only the entrance to a Christ-centered life.

I have been told recently that I speak better Spanish than any other missionary at our time in the field, and that has definitely gotten to my head. I am still working hard though, because I know I have a long way to go. 

My companion and I get along perfectly. We haven't argued about a single thing. We get along pretty well with the other elders in the apartment. We are like a little family. The four of us are a district. Elder Oldroyd is our district leader. He is from Mesa.   Arizona Pride!

We all cook together. We make a meal plan on Sunday night, and then we all pay in on Monday to buy the ingredients for each week, and now. The members don't really have us over very often. That is alright. We have learned to cook well.

And those letters, I love getting those letters. Especially the giant compilation of all my friends around the world. I love reading their adventures.

Anyways, I will fill you in next week about everything that is going on. I will know whether or not I will stay in Algeciras, and I will have a boat-load of photos of Sevilla. And some with me and the other elders too.

Just know, that we are working our butts off out here. We have had good success this week with some things, and rotten luck with others.  Next week, however, we are hoping that we get some new investigators. We have some solid futures now.

I love you guys, and I am so proud of everything that you are doing.

Congratulations to all those with mission calls, and those that are sending in their papers! It will be the BEST two years.

Os quiero mucho!
Elder Oliver

Monday, March 17, 2014

Read the Book of Mormon!

I am a man of many words. But not right now. My hands and brain are pretty tired. I just sent a bunch of emails to those in Torrevieja. Emails in 3 different languages. It is seriously difficult to switch my brain between Spanish, English, and German.  But I did it. But, I used up all of my brain power.

This week was a really good week. We had a lot of success working with less active members of the Church. I have come to realize that those members of the Church that have fallen back a bit in the last months or years, in some cases, have something in common. Many of them don't have a burning testimony of the Book of Mormon. For that, the moment some imperfect person makes a stupid comment, or teases, or they find some literature that casts the church in a bad light, they stop coming to church. The answer is so simple though. We have a book. In fact, we have more than one. We have the Book of Mormon.  The prophets have always taught us that the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion. Without it, we have nothing, our priesthood authority vanishes, the restored gospel of Christ vanishes, all the light and truth that we have received, answers to prayers, miracles, in the past 200 years vanish.

The Book of Mormon has power. It cannot be taken apart. There has not been one argument against the validity of the Book of Mormon made since its first publishing in 1830 that has not since been completely proved false, or lost all its footing. The Book of Mormon is truth, and truth cannot fall. There is a promise, that if we read it, test it, inquire of the Lord, try the promise, live the gospel, he will feel the power of the Lord in his life. --See John 7:17--

If people truly have a testimony of the divinity of the Book of Mormon, then it doesn't matter what comes their way, who says what, or what they read, because they have a peace of knowledge, and can feel the blessings of the Lord in their lives.

Not much has happened this week. But today we are going to spend the day with the Zone Leaders in Gibraltar. That is exciting! And we helped a couple of Canadian people find the bus to get there. I just can't imagine how they don't understand what the people are saying. I mean, come on! It is just Spanish!

I love you all!
Os quiero mucho!
Elder Oliver

ps. I will answer your questions next week. My fingers are frozen, and my brain is done.

Monday, March 10, 2014

A Better Week!

As many of you may not know, I have been having a rough time here in Algeciras. But, as many of you do know, I have been able to find much solace in pray, and diligent study of the scriptures. These weeks of getting up, working hard, and having absolutely nothing to show for it really took a toll on my morale. I searched the area book the other day, and saw that our dismal numbers are about even with most other companionships here in the past 4 years. So, I am not alone here. Even the ever-smiling Elder Bird was starting to feel the effects of Algeciras. 

However, we know the Lord has been looking out for us, and is putting us through trials so that when we finally find somebody to teach, our testimonies will be ever stronger. We will be humble enough to respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. We will be closer to Christ, in the way that we talk, listen, and pray. 

It's storytime now.

  Two weeks ago, Elder Bird and I were knocking the doors of a couple of buildings. That day was rough. We knocked, and knocked, and knocked, and we seriously got the door slammed in our faces every time-- except for this super chill Muslim guy-- and we were getting really tired of that. Or, I was getting really tired of it. After a couple minutes of chilling on a bench, trying to regather my desire to talk to more Spaniards, we came across a building with the door hanging open. Every time I see that, I know the Lord has opened a door for us, and there is somebody in the building ready to hear us.

The moment we entered the building, we both felt strongly that we were going to find somebody golden. We started knocking on the 8th floor, and worked our way down. However, after 3 floors of rejection, I got tired of it, and called it off. I gave up.

However, this last Saturday, we weren't having a ton of success with finding people-- what a surprise!-- and we were looking through the list of people that the missionaries had taught in the last few years that had lost contact. We came across a name, Anna, and she lived near where we were, so we went to go find it. It just so happens that the address we had for her was in that same building that we gave up on a few weeks ago, so we made a bee line for it. 

We got to the building, found the gate locked, but inside I saw the door was cracked open. I jimmy-rigged the gate, popped it open, and we proceeded inside. The door we were to contact was on the first floor, so we had skipped it the day I gave up. So we knocked on the door, and a man answered.

We talked to him for a minute, and found out that the lady we were trying to find hasn't lived there for over 2 years. So, we started chatting about the church, and asked if there was a time that we could come over to get to know him and introduce what we believe. Then he paused for a second and said, 'Well, you can come in right now if you would like." Talk about a stunned silence. We were just a little bit dumbstruck, but then we went in and started talking about everything. He is married, and they have a 7 year old child, and they love to read, and they don't drink, and their house is so clean and they are ready to get baptized. Well, I am jumping to conclusions, but that is okay. It is just the first time that we have taught a real investigator in 2 months. Our teaching was a little rusty, but we were able to set a next appointment, so I will fill you guys in next week after this goes through. 

We now know that when we feel like there is somebody prepared, we will not quit before we find them. We will endure the slamming doors, and angry, cutting words. We will search, and we will find the elect that have been prepared in this moment.

 4 What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?

 5 And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

 6 And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.

 7 I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

(Luke 15:4-7)
It is all worth it. It will always be worth it.

Os quiero mucho.
Elder Oliver



Monday, March 3, 2014

Proselyting in Gibraltar?

Well this week has been rough on the investigator front. But, there have been several good things happen here in this little branch of the Lord's church. 

First, we contacted a lot of people. We spent hours in the Area book, calling people from years of missionary service, and we have already seen the fruits of other people's labor. We were able to get 4 strong future investigators, and have already set up appointments with them. And they are families too! That is the most exciting part. It has been a while since we have taught a family, and we are hoping that these people just read the Book of Mormon, pray, learn that it is true, and then get so excited that they want to get baptized!!

That would seriously make my life.

With our dear friend M, we have been struggling. He is more slippery than a fish, and it is nearly impossible to find him at his house, which is a shame, because he already has a testimony of obedience to many of the commandments of the Lord. He has seen the blessings that come from living closer to how the Savior lived. But as I have already said in weeks past, he can't read. So, Elder Bird and I have downloaded the Book of Mormon as an MP3 for him to listen to each day, so that he can do his scripture study while we are away.

With E, she still wants to get baptized. However, I believe that once she decided to get baptized, she figured that our work is done, and doesn't really want to meet with us anymore. She probably thinks that is our job. To get people to get baptized. In reality, that is only a step. We are here to help her come closer to Christ, and faith, repentance, and baptism are only the first steps towards centering your life on Christ.

Speaking of Christ, I have started studying the 5 Gospels with intensity (the 4 Gospels of the New Testament, and the ''American'' Gospel, the book of 3rd Nephi, in the Book of Mormon). I have a strong desire to learn ever more deeply about our Savior. My knowledge of his dealings among men is already full of details, but I am determined to learn more of the reasons he had for many of the things he taught, things he did. It is more of a question of 'Why', than 'What', or 'how'.

My testimony of Prayer is just as strong as ever. Every time I feel down, I get down on my knees and pray my heart out. I always feel stronger after letting the Savior share some of my load of stress and anxiety.  As I have turned to the Savior to let him help me, I have found that miracles really can happen.

For example, this Sunday was the best Sunday I have ever had here in Algeciras. We had 6 members in the meeting that hadn't been to Church in a very long time, and for some reason the branch really was just emanating kindness and love from almost everybody. It was the first time that I really felt comfortable in this branch. Not only that, but our ward mission leader is an absolute machine. He is doing so much work to help us have more success, and the Branch President seems like he is on our team now.

You guys have no idea how nice of a change it was. 

This week we are going to proselyte in Gibraltar for a day to see how things are over there. Aside from P-days, missionaries haven't proselyted there for a very long time. We have a list of members and past investigators that will help us have a good start. And then I will be able to say that I proselyted in 2 different nations on my mission. That is pretty cool. Not a lot of missionaries get to say that. The problem is, choosing which language to speak. Everybody there is bilingual, and so should I speak the language that I have complete control over, or the language that I have developed to preach the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? That will be hard.

Anyways, I look forward every week to your emails, and to hear how life is going.

Os quiero muchisimo!
Love,
Elder Oliver