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.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Good News and Strange News!

Good news first! Do you remember the Ghanan, John?  (He first mentioned him here.)  The guy with a heart of pure gold in Algeciras. Well, he was progressing super well while I was there, and continued to progress really well with Elder Bird and Elder Allan. He went to church couple of times, loved it, and has been studying the book of Mormon as well as the Bible to find his answers. And he got his answers!  John got baptized!!!  That makes me so happy, and now he is working with his wife and kids towards baptism, and eventually towards becoming sealed in the temple for time and all eternity.

Now time for the strange news... John got baptized in 1998. Now, here is the story behind that. Well, actually, I don't know his story before that. I just know that since then, he has gone into several month long comas. And he has problems remembering everything that has happened to him. So, from some time after 1998 till 2014, he had forgotten the covenants that he made at baptism and went on a search to find the true church. He went to every evangelical, catholic, protestant, and methodist church, but there were things in every church that bugged him and stopped him from uniting himself to them. Then, in February of 2014, two Mormon missionaries knocked on his door, and began to teach him. Then the promise in John 14:26 was fulfilled. 
      It reads
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

The things that he heard from the missionaries struck a chord in his heart. He searched for answers and he found them for the second time.

Imagine the surprise when Elder Bird recounted this story to me this week. He told me that it went down like this...(already knowing that John's dad supposedly was baptized many years ago, as he told us last transfer)
----Elders with President Deere about to try to set a baptismal date with John----
John--  'Brothers, I need to tell you something. You will never be able to baptize me. I have said that many times. But it is not because of any doctrinal issues, or doubts that I have.  You see, I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the year 1998.'

----Stunned looks on their faces----

President Deere-- '(very pensively) Hmmmm... Then it is time for you to bring the blessings of the Gospel to the rest of your family.'

And the excitement doesn't end there!  This week we made friends with the pastors of the Evangelical Church in Los A, and this Saturday they had a big theater production, and invited us to be VIPs there. Just imagine two Mormon missionaries walking into the ghetto-est of the ghettos to go attend an evangelical meeting.  And I have to say, it was awesome. And a bit crazy. Super loud music, lots of smoking, lots of AMEN, HALLELUJAH, GLORIA A DIOS, BENDECIDO SEA TU NOMBRE SEÑOR!!!!!!    I feel like I lost a bit of hearing that night. But, now we have solid contacts in Los A, and everybody there loves us.  Si Dios quiere, we will baptize their pastor, haha:)

And one last thing, this week I have really been playing my violin a lot more. We saw a bit of a move about Los Mormon Boys, a group of missionary performers in Argentina in the 60's. So, with any luck, we will be able to do something like that here. There is such a rich background of music here in Southern Spain. I would love to just jam on my violin with a group of gypsies singing flamenco. And Hermana Andrew and I played I know that my Redeemer lives. In church. It sufficeth me to say that many many eyes were teared up. 

Anyways, I hope you all have a great week!! Not much time today for personalized emails to everybody, but I hope that you all have a great week, and be the men and women that God would have you be.


Os quiero mucho!!!
Elder Oliver



ps. This week I learned how to read Hebrew... It's a little tricky, but seriously cool:) 

June 16 Email

Wow! This week really has flown by. We have worked really, really hard, and we have really been having a great time!

I'm going to answer some of your questions. Yes! I got your letter, thanks Mom:)
So, on the mission blog, it says that F baptized L, YES!!  He was a less active member when we began working with them, but he fixed up everything, and was able to baptize L after they got married! It makes me so happy to see them both in white! One year from now, I hope to hear from them that they have been sealed in the temple for time and all eternity. Man, this work is the best! Sometimes I wish that it would never end, as in, I sometimes want to stay out here forever.

O is doing spectacularly! He has been listening to a dvd of classical music (can you guess who made that for him?) and he has really changed in the last few weeks. It's quite funny, because sometimes we walk into their house, and he is in the other room singing Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, or Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.  I love that kid. And recently, he finally began studying the Book of Mormon, however, as you know, he has problems reading and understanding, so we gave him a dvd with all the Living Scriptures cartoons. We went over to his house yesterday, and he was telling us all about stories in the Book of Mormon, and Elder S and I gave each other a big high five!  He also said he will start to listen to the Audiobook Book of Mormon that was on that disk as well, so we will see how he is doing tonight.

Elder S and I are doing great! We get along well, we work hard, and we have a lot of fun. This last week we have been especially efective in how we work, and on Thursday, we had 8 lessons in one day. That is the most we have ever done, and the most I have ever had in one day. Not only that, but we got a new investigator, received a bunch of references, futures, and still had a little bit of time during mediodia to relax. It was the best day ever. However, this week really ended on a bad note. On Sunday the Relief Society passes around the dinner appointment list for the missionaries. To our great frustration, We only have 1 eating appointment this week, whereas all the other companionships have appointments every day. That is a little frustrating, especially because WE are the elders that always make desserts for the RS.

It's great to see and hear about how my friends are doing all around the world. When I read about all the good in the world that my friends are doing I realize just how great my friends are. My friends are the best. I need to keep in better contact with them.

We had interviews with president last week, and they went really well. Elder S says that President will keep him here in A for another transfer. That is pretty cool. We will have a baptism together! I hope! There is a young gypsy couple that will be getting married very soon, and A, 18, is planning on getting baptized. We just need to help him wear a white shirt to church. The story about this kid, is he was working with the missionaries. And they put a baptismal date on him, and he was super excited to get baptized, then the DAY BEFORE his baptism, he and his girlfriend decided to live together. When he told the missionaries that, they told him that he couldn't get baptized until they got married. With that, he went into a seizure... I guess this kid really wanted to get baptized!  And he still does, and now he and his girlfriend, the girl from the ward that gave the missionaries A's info, are about to get married. So that is good!! 

I just want you all to know, that I love you so much, and I love the work of the Lord more than anything else! Even if it is difficult sometimes!



Os quiero mucho!
Elder Oliver

Monday, June 9, 2014

Shortest email ever

Okay, don't rip me a new one for the ridiculously short email today. It's just that we are completely out of time, and I have to run to an appointment right now!

I just want you all to know that I love this work. There is nowhere in the world I would rather be than right here in the Lord's work! Many people are feeling the love of the Lord in their lives, and coming unto him.

I was told this week that L got baptized! {She was from Hayden's first area} After months of waiting for marriage papers, F and L finally got married, and she was ready to be baptized. She followed the example of Jesus, and entered into a covenant with our Father to always remember him, and to keep his commandments. 

Obedience brings blessings!!


Os quiero mucho!
Elder Oliver

Monday, June 2, 2014

Week of Good News!

This week has been a continuous flow of good news.

First, our investigator, O, even though he won't be getting baptized this week, has changed. You can see it in his eyes, you can hear it in the way he talks, especially to his family, and he behaves as if he cared about them. Which is a huge miracle. Everything stems from what happened on Wednesday... We celebrated O's 18th birthday (but first birthday party) at the chapel on Wednesday. However, he didn't arrive on time, so we went to his house to find him, and it is a miracle that we arrived when we did. O and his younger brother had gotten to yelling at each other, and then, out of nowhere, the two dogs, a boxer and a great dane got in a fight. The great dane chomped down on the face of the boxer, and--luckily-- only got skin, and bit right through. They were having a tug of war, with his face... Everybody was trying to pry the dogs apart, when after about a minute of watching the awful scene, it finally let go.

O has problems with handling stress. When he gets stressed, it turns into anger. And that was a very stressful moment for him. He went into a fit, I wouldn't call it a fit of rage, but it was an uncontrollable fit of anger, sadness, disgust, and pain. It was so overwhelming, mentally, that for a few minutes he didn't even resemble a human. However, we were able to help him get some breath, and then he spent the next 20 minutes huffing and puffing, growling out, ''I control myself. I control myself.'' and the intermittent ''wow, it is hard to control my anger''

Later, we went to the party, had a great time, helped him relax a bit, get to know the YSA, and he even said a prayer at the end. Afterwards, we had a great lesson about Alma 7:11-13, and Ether 12:27.

Since that day, he has changed. He has become a man that can control himself.

Then, I received news that E, an investigator of mine in Algeciras got baptized! Even though I wasn't there to see it, it made me so happy to hear about it, and to have been a part of the work of Salvation. Next step, TEMPLE!

Then, well, there really isn't all that much. I just got so overwhelmed and so happy about E's baptism, that this whole week transformed into an awesome week, even though we had some pretty difficult days.

That is alright. Anyways, as usual, with lots of pictures, comes fewer words. I have to go, but I hope you enjoy a few of the pictures that I have included and sent to dropbox.


Os quiero muchísimo!
Elder Oliver

He didn't tell me anything about any of the pictures, so use your imagination.  Hopefully he'll fill us in next week.  Maybe when he gets back from his mission we can teach him how to smile for the camera???