Photos from Florida

Elder Olivier and his companion, Elder Avina - eating ice cream on p-day.

Zone FLORIDAAAAA!!!!

Zone activity on p-day

P-day selfie

What a great week!!!

Dearest,

I wrote a list of things that I simply have to write home about that haven´t yet made it into the letters.

We continue to receive on many nights bags of croissant-like pastries tossed up to us!!  So kind.  We visited the bakery one time to give our thanks.  The couple that works there are members in a different branch in the city, but they still give us food.  Oh my, they were amazingly generous when we were in their store.  They showed us with excitement all the ovens and back corners, and gave us cute little tarts, bread, and then sent us home with an entire pound cake!  All for free!  Just because!  The members of the church in Uruguay have so much faith and strength when there aren´t many others who are strong in the faith.  They are also so generous.  Almost everyone whose house we stop by at offers us cold drinks.  It is very common to drink carbonated water here, which I love and my companion hates.  :)  We´re always receiving generous offerings, even from people who have very little.

After that bakery experience, we went to meet an inactive family.  They weren´t expecting us.  The mom and oldest daughter were smoking on the porch.  Her oldest son was about to return from a mission (he just got back this last monday).  They promptly extinguished their cigarettes and we had a very good chat.  She was very open with us -- she used to be a relief society president and many other very active callings, but she got divorced and had lots of problems in her family, and they haven´t gone to church for years, and she started smoking again.  I love the way that Uruguayos are so frank and open.  Most people we talk to are that way -- very honest about their problems and their lives.  It´s not common in the US.

Some curiosities of Uruguay: everyone rides motorcyles!!  I mean EVERYONE!  From 14-year-old boys to 80-year-old grandmas and everything in between and everything not included in that category . . . . yep, everyone rides them.  It´s pretty funny.  Also, it´s "cool" to take out the muffler, which my companion called the stupidest thing he´s ever heard of. :) It is bad.  Also, like most of South America, I imagine, there are tons of dogs here.  Everyone has a dog or 10.  We just had elections here, and there were these obnoxious cars driving around playing political ads.  We adopted one of their slogans: "Somos hoy, somos ahora" "We are today, we are now" :)

We are teaching a fantastic man named Emanuel.  He is the boyfriend of a girl who is the daughter of our ward mission leader.  Their family, that of the ward mission leader, is familia Oyarzabal.  They are so fantastic!  I love their devotion to the gospel.  They are super nice and always welcome us into their home.  We teach Emanuel at their house, because he always goes over there after work to relax and be with that family and his girlfriend.  He came to church on Sunday!!!  It was such a joy!  He´s the coolest guy -- very chilled out, very genuine.  He is very interested in the gospel and has been to church before, and even went on the branch temple trip without realizing that he couldn´t go inside.  He told us he would love to enter the temple.  He has faith and a desire to repent and be baptized.  He is working on quitting smoking right now to achieve the goal of being baptized on the 31st.  I know he can do it!  

We were teaching a woman named Maria Eugenia.  She is in her twenties and takes care of her two young siblings.  Horrifically, their father killed their mother.  I can´t even imagine what they went through.  The two kids are members and are the sweetest little spirits ever.  Maria has trouble with the law of chastity because she has a boyfriend, but they do not live together.  She accepted the law, but has decided not to be baptized.  We have not given up on her though.  She is wonderful.  We have had a family home evening with their family.

My time runs thin, so I must cut to the chase.  On Saturday, I had the opportunity to give a blessing in Spanish for the first time!  I felt the Spirit so strongly, and even though I couldn´t say very much, I felt the love of the Lord for Maria Jose Cabrera, the less-active member we teach.  She has had a lot of problems in her life and is in a sad situation right now.  Her house is the most humble house I have ever been in.  She´s not married to her boyfriend, but they have three kids.  Her 8-year-old daughter is being baptized on the 31st!!!  Her boyfriend is not a member.  She really has a sincere desire to change her life and get active in the church, and she´s working to achieve that.  She´s working to stop smoking and to get married and to generally turn her life around.  It´s awesome to see someone progress like that!!!

We also had a rockin lesson with Emanuel on the law of chastity.  Hermana Oyarzabal testified so sweetly of the law and the impact it has had in her family and her marriage.  Mom and Dad, I´m so grateful that you have lived that law!  I often testify of my family´s strength because of the strength of my parents.  

Yesterday, we gave another blessing in the hospital.  We randomly just walked in and wandered around -- NOT possible in the US!!!  

We also had a cool lesson with an adamant baptist guy.  He was awesome!  He and his daughter refused to believe in Joseph Smith, but we left them a BoM!  It felt great to testify of Joseph Smith.

Much love to everyone!!  Know that I am loving this missionary work so much.  I am being much more patient with myself as well.  The church is so true!!!

--Elder Max Olivier

The sacrament is holy

Dearest ones,

This week was so wonderful!  Being a missionary is such a privilege and a joy!  

It is also hard at times.  Especially when you´re me, and you demand perfection of yourself and overcomplicate everything. :)  I´m learning, though!

Yesterday was an amazing experience.  Our investigators Sebastian and Margarita, two teenagers, texted us at 7:20, before church at 9:00, to say that they did not want us to come over anymore and that they weren´t coming to church.  I cried.  We had a lesson with Sebastian the night before, and I could see that he was interested.  He even committed to come to church.  I can see how much the gospel will bless people´s lives, so I get so frustrated and sad when they don´t see it.  I of course blamed myself a bit, and I was so sad because my heart was set on seeing Sebastian in church.  I have been too uptight and trying to be perfect immediately, so this was all a great experience.

On the way to church, we saw Hermana Cabrera, the less-active woman we taught on our first night here.  I was so excited to see her and her daughter in sunday dress coming to church!  There was even Rodrigo, a crazy recent convert there too!!  Seeing them comforted me.

The sacrament meeting was amazing.  I felt the spirit so strongly.  The sacrament was one of the greatest experiences of my life.  I felt that I had truly repented of my sins and mistakes, and I felt the Savior lifting my burdens from me, comforting me, and letting me know that I don´t have to be perfect now.  I just have to do my best and keep going.  That´s what I´m doing!!

Yikes, there´s much more to say, but my time is over now.  We are striving to find more people and work with members so that we can get some people who actually make committments!!!  I am so eager to help people come unto Christ and realize the blessings of the gospel!

Love,

Élder Olivier

our study area!

My CCM teacher Hermano Pedersen.  What a guy!  I want to be like him!  He served a mission in Utah but is from Buenos Aires.

Helloooo, Uruguay!

Dear ones,

I am now working in the actual mission field!  Wow!  The area assigned to me and my amazing companion is in the beautiful little city of Florida, about 2 or 3 hours north of Montevideo.  Look it up -- it is wonderful here.  

My companion is Elder Aviña of Mexico City.  He is truly amazing.  He has tons of experience, skills, methods,  . . . . everything.  I hope I can truly learn from him.  I already am progressing out here.  Both of us are completely new to the area, so we are working to find people to teach.  There were just a few people with info left to us from the previous elders.  

The first day here was amazing.  We arrived at about 6pm to our house, and a note left for us inside said that we were to have a lesson with a sister who is a member of the church (but inactive) and her daughter who wants to be baptized.  We were at their house in under an hour, teaching!  Wow, it was very cool.  I felt the Spirit.  Since then, we have had about 15 lessons or so this week.  I have loved being able to sit in homes with people and teach them about the joyous message of the gospel of Christ.  I cannot understand everything, nor can I say everything that I want to say, but I am improving bit by bit.  I hope to improve much more.  However, when I am able to teach and converse and understand, it is truly wonderful.  We have some promising investigators, and I hope they choose to act upon our messages, because I know how much the gospel of Jesus Christ as well as the church will make a difference in their lives.  I hope to see progression in the people, and true changes.

Yesterday, we went to church -- my first time in Uruguay and my first time in Spanish!  It was wonderful.  We serve in the Ferroviario branch, along with a companionship of sisters.  The branch is wonderful . . . it is amazing to see faithful, active members of the church in this small Uruguayo neighborhood.  I had to present myself and share my testimony in spanish -- it went well!

Much love,

--Élder Olivier

no time left!  next week I will write more and send more pictures.

Arrived safely in my first area!

Mom and Dad,

Hello!!!  I have 15 minutes now to write you.  On Martes (or tuesday), we flew to Uruguay.  It was a very short flight of 45 minutes.  We went to the mission home in Montevideo, which was very pleasant.  President and Sister Cook are wonderful.  The missionaries here are amazing and full of energy and good attitudes.  We had the opportunity to go proselyting with an experienced missionary that first day.  Elder Quezada accompanied me -- he is one of the secretaries.  It was an amazing experience -- he knows exactly what he is doing!

We then received our trainers and arrived in our areas.  I am so lucky!!  My trainer is Elder Aviña, of Mexico City.  He is fantastic.  He has been a district leader and was just a zone leader.  I am his second trainee.  Here, new missionaries are called oros, or goldens, instead of greenies.  How nice!  We already get along well.  He is very nice, patient with me, and a great teacher.  We arrived in Florida yesterday, our city.  It is beautiful.  We arrived at about 7pm, and we were teaching at an appointment at 8!  The ward mission leader also called us and we met him.  E. Aviña said that this never happens and that our area is amazing and already full of miracles.  That night, a man tossed us a bag of pastries up to our window from the street below.  Apparently, he brings treats every night to the missionaries in that house!  Wow.  Also, we eat lunch with members every day here -- crazy!  Today, we have been working on cleaning the filthy house . . . the shower curtain was frightfully moldy, so we replaced that.  Everything is much cleaner now.  We already had lunch today.  

So much to say, but no time.  I am so excited to be here!  I love it!  I am working on understanding more spanish, but I feel pretty okay right now.  I can usually understand my companion quite well, and he is patient with me.  He also knows some english.

Chau!!!

Much love,

--Elder Olivier

How much I have learned here...

If only I had the time to explain to you all the many wonderful things I have learned here in the CCM.  I have grown immensely in these very short weeks.  

Perhaps the most important thing I have learned here is that we must abandon our own wordly understanding and trust completely in God, relying on the merits of Christ and following completely the whisperings of the Holy Spirit.  I remember that Elder Gebs and I had a very terrible lesson with our IP Genoveva (our practice investigator who in reality is our morning teacher, Hna. Rios).  She said that she no longer wanted to be baptized, and my heart died. :) I did not really know what to do or say in that moment, but I tried my best and felt horrible.  The lesson felt like a failure because of me.  (hopefully I haven´t told this story already!)  

I realized that I felt that way because I was trying to figure out, of my own intelligence and thoughts, what her needs were and how I could meet them.  However, this is completely the wrong approach!  Of ourselves, we can do nothing -- even great prophets of the Lord have written that statement.  I am learning to turn over my knowledge to God and lean completely on Him, trusting in Him who knows everything perfectly.  When I am able to do that, I feel the Spirit, and others can feel the Spirit too.  It is still necessary that I prepare and work hard, of course!  But leaning on the Spirit is what changes lives and hearts.

Yikes I have no time!!!  Hopefully there will be more time in the field.

Oh yeah, I leave this tuesday for Uruguay!!!!  So excited.

We went proselyting last week, for the last time, and it went well.  The people had generally less interest, but I felt successful because I was able to talk to more of the people and work harder.

Much love!

I am getting kicked out already.  Oh well!

Read 2nd Nephi -- it is the best thing ever!