a bunch of nightly phone calls and a dreaded text message

Dear Family and Friends,

Love you all!

This week was fantastic.  My first week of being the district leader has been crazy and exciting.  It is an adjustment, to be sure, but one I am loving already.  The thing that stressed me the most was giving the district meeting, but thanks to the Holy Spirit´s guide, I felt like everything just came together beautifully.  It is so amazing how the Holy Ghost will help us, even when we are lacking or somewhat unprepared . . . He knows what we need, and He knows what others need too.  My plans came together, and I taught the district on Friday!  I taught about the light of the Restoration, and the importance of teaching the Restoration to the less-active members and helping them remember the light they have received because of it.  The practices went well, too, and I think it helped the district.  I am so lucky to have such amazing missionaries in my district -- there are three other companionships other than my own.

Another thing I do as district leader is the nightly verifications.  I call each companionship (well, I talk face to face with the one that lives with me!) and hear how their day was, how the people they work with are doing, and how their plans are doing.  It is spiritual, interesting, and just fun!  It does mean that I have no free time in the nights anymore.  This morning was my first leaders meeting with the zone leaders, district leaders, and hermanas viajantes (sister trainer leaders?).  It was great!  We set some great goals and plans for the zone and talked about how we can help specific missionaries.

Anyways.  So that stuff is going pretty well!  About the dreaded text.  yep.  Luisa Fernandez sent us the ever-dreaded message before our lesson on Friday telling us not to come over and that she doesn´t want to receive the lessons anymore.  We had almost no saldo but I called her . . .and then the saldo ran out in the middle of the conversation.  It´s her darn husband!!!  Apparently he forcefully told her that he doesn´t like her going to church and having us over at the house and that he didn´t want to get married anymore either.  She told me she will continue reading the Book of Mormon and praying, which I believe she will do.  We haven´t seen her since or had other contact . . . she and her family need your prayers!  She has a testimony!!!  For now, my plan is to pray and fast and then try to set up a lesson in the church, and maybe something more . . . . . . but she wants to avoid contention in her family and it sounds to me like she is a bit unwilling to go against her husband.  If you can, pray for her and put her name on the temple prayer roll.

Yanci is doing well -- she came to church again with her mom Olga and we taught her twice during the week.  We will see her again tomorrow.  She doesn´t 100% understand all that we teach yet, but she loves going to church and she needs the gospel in her life now.  She has attempted suicide a few times and suffers from mental and emotional illness, but she is a super amazing, calm person.  We will help her be baptized in April!  She has been reading a little in the Book of Mormon and is reading out loud together with Olga.  She would also benefit from your prayers.  We were also able to bring a less-active sister Hna Correa to church, and all the sisters were super excited to see her!  She wants to return.  She has been struggling with smoking again and knows she is not keeping all the commandments, but she seems willing and eager to come back to church!

I am so excited for the general conference!  We are also promoting and attempting to use the new video Gracias a que Él vive (Because He lives?).  I am eager to bring people to listen to the prophets´ voices testifying of the Resurrected Savior!  I know He lives and I love Him.

Love you all!  thanks for everything!

--Elder Max Olivier

Cambios!!! A full!!

Dear family and friends,

This week was a bit slow, and full of wonderful special activities.  We had a zone conference at the temple on Thursday!!!  We got to attend the temple after having some instruction with President Cook as well as personal interviews with him.  He is such an amazing, spiritual man.  It was only my third interview with him, but every time it just lifts me up and makes me feel better! :)  He surprised me in that interview by telling me that he is making me district leader for this change, which starts tomorrow!!!  I will still be finishing the training of Elder Anderson here in Minas, of course, but it will be a big change!  I can´t quite believe that starting tomorrow I am going to be doing all the nightly verifications with my district and that on Friday I will be teaching the district meeting!  Yikes!  It is a big new responsibility, but also a great opportunity to learn, love, and serve.  I am mostly excited about it.  But I also ask that you say a prayer for me so I can do it!  The zone is getting a ton of new leaders -- the other district leader is going to be my friend Elder Torres, also a new leader, who I know because he was in Florida when I arrived, and we´re getting a new zone leader and a new hermana viajante.  

Last night, all the elders traveled to La Capuera, the new area with the super nice, clean, small new house.  All ten of us slept over, and this morning, we traveled to Pan de Azúcar to climb the famous hill with the whole zone.  It was super fun!  It was like a real hike!  This is basically the only place in the country with a hill capable of being hiked, so that was a special treat.  There is a giant old sketchy stone cross at the top you can climb.  There was also a cute little zoo with some odd native animals including capybaras (here called carpinchos).

Anyways.  Church was lovely even though not that many people showed up. Luisa is still going strong and she is progressing so much!  This was her second time at church and she LOVED it!  She talked to her husband and they are planning to get married so she can be baptized!!!!  He still doesn´t have any interest in the church, but we will work on that.  I feel so privileged to see the conversion of Luisa -- I feel like in a humble way I am actually making a difference in someone´s life.  I hope we can find more firm investigators, because we still don´t have any other real investigators right now.

I love you all so much!  Sorry for the short letter!

--Elder Max Olivier

gorgeous view from the hill

me in the slightly creepy cross

Come in, between. Drink a chair.

Dearest family and friends, hello!

This week was fantastic.  We had the oros conference with Elder Anderson´s group in Montevideo.  The hermanas viajantes taught us some awesome workshops, and we were also with Pte y Hna Cook.  We ate super well.  We learned a lot.  We had fun being with all the trainers and oros of this change.  It was a lovely experience.  Included is a picture of Tres Cruces, the giant bus terminal in Montevideo for travel throughout the country.  

Church was a miracle.  76 people showed up!!!  Usually there´s only about 52.  It is amazing to me how the Lord works.  We hardly do anything -- He directs this work, the grand work of salvation.  As full-time missionaries, we just be obedient, learn, study, and work as hard as we can to help others come unto Christ.  We are less than the dust, but in His hands, we can help others.  Often, He prepares people´s hearts without us even doing anything.  There´s a handful of less-active families who have started coming back to church -- we are going to help them return to full activity and build their faith.  But there is still LOTS of work to do.

On Saturday we had the most spiritual, beautiful, miraculous lesson of my mission so far.  We taught Louisa for the third time and we brought Hna Sanguinetti, who is less-active.  Louisa kept all her commitments.  She has been reading the Book of Mormon every day and night, and she has been offering personal prayers every night.  She told us that she never took interest in religion and never really believed in God, but then we appeared at her door and she received us.  After the first contact with her a couple weeks ago, we showed up late to our scheduled time with her because we actually found Melani and we were teaching her the first lesson.  Louisa had waited for us, but then left because we didn´t come.  We told her daughter we would come back.  Louisa has kept every single commitment.  Despite our weaknesses and our failures, and our más o menos lessons with her at times, she is feeling the Spirit.  She is being converted through the marvelous power and truth of the Book of Mormon.  Her family doesn´t want to learn anything right now, but they support her, at least.  She is SO FAITHFUL and is really a chosen person.  It was the most beautiful experience to hear her say that her life has changed already because of the Book of Mormon.  She came to church by herself on Sunday and seemed to enjoy it.  We will see her on Tuesday -- tomorrow!!  Pray for her.  She is amazing.  She has a baptismal date right now, but will need to get married to achieve it, and she doesn´t know that yet . . . . . so we still have a lot of work to do.  But yay!!!

The rest still haven´t kept commitments or we haven´t been able to find them.  Entonces . . . claro.  Así es.  Pero ta.  :)

Love you all so much!  Have to go!  Bye!

--Elder Max Olivier

ummmm did another week really just pass by? :)‏

Hello dear family and friends!

This week was interesting.  It was a bit patience-trying, to be honest, and yet it flew by insanely quickly.  I think it´s because I am often at a bit of a loss of what to do, as far as planning goes -- our few firm investigators are so hard to get a hold of that they almost never answer the phone or respond to messages or receive us in their houses, and they have canceled whatever firm lessons we had scheduled.  It is disappointing, but I am doing the best I can and seeking the Spirit´s guidance every day, and I know that I am still learning, so I feel okay.

We had an amazing first lesson with Melani, who we contacted in the street with her boyfriend.  They were super nice people who stopped to listen and were very kind with my companion´s slow spanish.  They both showed interest and accepted baptismal dates.  This was about two weeks ago, but only in this last week were we finally able to have our first lesson with Melani.  It went very well and the Spirit was very present.  She told us that she struggles with depression and bipolar disorder and that she is also entangled in drugs right now, and that she wants to find the way out and wants to feel like God is actually helping her.  We taught her the message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and gave her the Book of Mormon.  It was so wonderful to be able to teach according to her need and testify of God´s love and hand, and how we can receive His help through the Book of Mormon.  We read from Alma 7 about Jesus Christ´s Atonement -- His part, and our part, or what we need to do to apply it.  She committed to read and pray -- we left her with 2 Nephi 2 to read.  She also said that she would love to be baptized and that she would love to receive answers from God.  The frustrating part is that she canceled on us for our next lesson two days later, and we haven´t seen her since, despite calling, sending messages, and passing by her house.  I pray for her every day, because I know that she has desires to change and improve her life, and I know that learning and living the restored gospel of Jesus Christ will enable her to do that.  I ask that you pray for her also!

Our other firm investigator Iris and her niece Karen have also been nearly impossible to get a hold of, and although we fixed a lesson with her and a member yesterday, when we came by they were in a birthday party and told us to come back later.  Ugh!  Iris told us that her daughters talked her out of going to church last week, and she didn´t want contention so she didn´t go. But she still seems  interested, and said that she read a few things in the Book of Mormon but didn´t remember anything, although she did like it and felt good about it.  She´s such a funny old grandma -- I wish her large loud family were more open to being taught as well.

Once again, no one committed to go to church during the week.  We also had a good first lesson with Louisa -- she was a contact from knocking doors.  She actually keeps her commitments to have lessons!  That lesson was . . . hard.  My poor companion broke down into frustrated tears when I gave him room to speak because he didn´t know what to say nor how to say it.  I felt so bad.  Louisa was so kind and understanding.  I didn´t really know what to do . . . but I finished teaching the lesson (which went poorly) and we set up a time to come back this week.  I felt responsible at first for my companion´s suffering.  Now, I think it´s not my fault.  I wish I could be a better trainer and teach him better, but all I can do is continue to give my very best effort and constantly seek and follow the Holy Spirit.  It did feel good to comfort him and teach him afterwards about how I have learned to be more patient and charitable with myself in the mission.  He is a bit of a perfectionist as well.  Pray for Elder Anderson!

We had a very interesting experience this week with recent convert Angela.  She was baptized by Elder Oliver at the end of December.  She is the most faithful person I know, I´m pretty sure.  The way she 100% accepted and immediately lived the restored gospel is astounding.  She is a single mom and grandma right now and has many health problems and basically no support from her family, but her faith in Jesus Christ is basically unshakable.  When we were in a lesson, she sent a message canceling our appointment with her and saying that she wasn´t going to go to church anymore.  This shocked me, coming from the woman who, despite her physical pains and difficulties, bikes to church by herself every sunday.  It was alarming!  Then she called a bit later to make sure we knew that she was still going to read her scriptures and everything, but that she wasn´t going to church and she didn´t want us to come over.  I explained that we would still love to come over even if she didn´t go to church, and that our priority is to make sure that she is well, spiritually.  She accepted.  In her house that day, she ended up letting us know that she learned in church through a class that she, without previously realizing or understanding it, was breaking a commandment, and for that could not take the sacrament last week.  She talked to the branch president and everything.  She felt so horrible and remorseful for her sins -- she is really a converted person.  She demands a lot of herself.  We were able to read the scriptures together.  I had recently studied 3 Nephi 18, and we studied the Savior´s own words about the sacrament and repentance.  It was a very spiritual experience -- I felt like an instrument in God´s hands.  She committed to keep going to church every week -- her repentance was strong and immediate, and will continue with time.

There´s a lot more I want to relate .  . . .  but I have already gone into depth on a few of the highlights of this week.  Now I shall read your lovely letters!  I have talked too much!  That´s something I have to work on -- sometimes when people actually listen to us, I get overexcited and talk and teach too much.  I just love teaching the gospel -- but then I get tangled in too many words and talking too much.  This is a dispensation of preaching repentance, and not many words, as the Lord said in the Doctrine and Covenants.  I am working to be more efficient with time and words, more simple, more clear, and more focused on the Spirit.  I ask for your continued support in prayer.

I love you all so much and give you many thanks!!!

A large hug,

Elder Olivier

pictures: the house!

and . . . me, always ready to study! ;)

Another good week of work!

Dearest friends and family,

To start, I forgot to mention last week that we were about to have a conference with Elder Viñas of the seventy, a counselor in the area Sudamerica Sur!!!!  It was so awesome!!!!!!  Last week on lunes (monday, p-day), we had to go set up chairs and tables in our chapel in the morning.  We also had to walk to the other chapel in Minas and CARRY three tables to our chapel, which is probably a distance of about 20 city blocks.  I carried the heaviest table with Elder Johnson and just about died -- I have literally never sweat so much in my life.  Totally worth it.  The conference was fantastic and we felt the Spirit so strongly.  Elder Viñas encouraged us to focus on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He also taught us to seek out the chosen people and help them become disciples of Jesus Christ and then be baptized.  He said that the overall quality of baptisms, at least in this area of the church, is somewhat poor, because so many people become less-active or inactive.  I loved his perspective of finding chosen people, then helping them become converted, then baptizing them.  He said something that really helped me put things in perspective: "Don´t worry about your personal success!!!"

There is kind of a lot of pressure to baptize, which is good, because in that way we help people come unto Christ and enter in at the strait gate towards eternal life.  However, I had previously worried about the small quantity of baptisms in my mission so far.  I feel like I have been doing the absolute best I can, which of course includes many flaws, but I haven´t seen a whole lot of fruits in baptisms.  When Elder Viñas said not to worry about your personal success, I realized that the most important thing is having our eye completely single to the glory of God and forgetting ourselves.  Also in a fabulous district meeting after the conference, we talked about Abinadi and how he didn´t live to see even ONE fruit of his incredibly faithful service!!!  And yet he had such a huge hope, faith, and assurance that he was in the right path and that he could be an instrument in God´s hands for the blessing of His children.  I am a HUGE fan of Abinadi and I want to become more life him -- more faithful, more hopeful, and more consecrated.  This perspective both gives me comfort and challenges me to be better.

In spite of my weaknesses and faults, I know that if I do my very best and devote myself to my Heavenly Father, the Atonement applies immediately and fully.  The Atonement is so infinite, so eternal, and so perfect that it even applies to people who have already died and are in the spirit world!  How much more, then, does it apply to us in this life, here and now!!!!  I am so grateful for God´s perfect plan and for the Savior´s atoning sacrifice.

Our investigator Iris, despite committing super well to come to church, making a plan, and complying with her other commitments, did not show up to church, but instead had her husband call us at 8:30 the morning of to cancel. :(  It was disappointing, but I know that we did everything we could, so I wasn´t disappointed in myself.  Other promising people failed to keep their commitments to have lessons with us, but we did all we can.  the good news is that the phone credit arrived, so after a week without phone credit, we can work much more effectively now!  Anyways.  The search for chosen people continues!  Gladys is doing well, although her mom didn´t bring her to church this sunday.  She will do it next sunday.  Pray to help us find and help the chosen people!

I love you all so very much and I thank you for keeping me in your prayers.

--Elder Max Olivier