sorry, short message!

Hello dearest family and friends!

Suffice it to say that this week was crazy and busy. 

The highlight was the 2-mission conference with Elder Oaks and Sister Oaks!  The mission presidents and their wives also spoke, along with two area authorities, Elder Cabrera and Elder Viñas.  It was awesome!!!  I ended up singing, sadly, because the other mission´s pianist had already been asked first.  But I knew him -- Elder Bentley was in my BYU ward for a year!!!  

The conference was lovely.  I especially loved how Elder Oaks talked about being an instrument in the Lord´s hands.  He compared it to a pen -- we need to be full of ink, or we need to treasure up in our minds the words of eternal life.  We need to be in working order, or healthy and taking care of ourselves and our bodies.  We need to be ready to go at any time in the Lord´s service, especially as FULL-TIME missionaries.  We need to write the Lord´s message and do His will, not our own.  I thought it was an ingenious analogy!  Sister Oaks was also amazing -- she brought her famous testimony gloves for the mission, too!

I also had 2 baptismal interviews this week.  Ana Corbo will be baptized tomorrow!! yay!!!

Um, sorry, but the ciber is closing right now so I have to go.  Love you all so much!!!!!

--Elder Max Olivier

A week of little miracles

Dearest family and friends,

Yay for today!  Yay for the chance to live and grow and move and breathe and work!  Yay for a God who constantly watches over us and loves us and gives us life!

This was a great week.  I was kinda feeling tired and stressed because we have a ton going on, and I am getting a little tired from doing so much all the time, but my companion´s good humor and patience has helped me out a lot.  I am loving the work so much right now.  We are really blessed with a lot of investigators with a lot of potential right now!!!

On tuesday I had an intercambio with my zone leader Elder Mendenhall.  I learned from him to make friendship be almost the first priority in every contact, lesson, and interaction we have with people.  He is full of charisma and love, and a great teacher.  

We taught the restoration to a recent convert´s sister who is a firm catholic and it went really well -- she understood perfectly, but now it has been super hard to get another lesson with her.  We will see her this week, somehow!  

Right after, we had a great contact.  A little girl had previously told me and my companion to pass by her house because her sister wanted a Bible.  I went with Elder Mendenhall and we talked to the mom, Gladys.  She opened up to us and told her about her sad life story, her divorce, her depression, and her desire to come closer to God.  She accepted a Book of Mormon and a return visit, as well as a baptismal invitation.  When we went to visit her again, she wasn´t there, and the next day we found out that she had attempted suicide.  We should finally see her today.  I can´t believe how many people actually attempt suicide -- it is super sad. Thankfully Yanci seems to be doing a lot better now and she hasn´t attempted again.  We also have two other potential investigators who have attempted.  :(  These people need the light, hope, and happiness of the restored gospel now!

Elder Mendenhall stayed the night and he and I went to Montevideo the next day for the mission choir practice.  I think it went well -- it was actually really short!  It is not sure whether I will actually get to play the piano or if it will be the guy from the other mission, but if I don´t play I will sing, so I am happy and excited either way.  Tomorrow we will have the two-mission conference with Elder Oaks!!!  yay!!!  we´re going to estaca flores in the other mission, so that will be cool.

We have a lovely new investigator named Esperanza Ilusión (Hope Illusion) (!!) who is a super cute old grandma who lives with some family members.  Despite her considerable age, she understands the gospel very well.  She read 3 Nephi 11 in the Book of Mormon and had a great spiritual experience and understood the chapter perfectly.  She wants to be baptized.  She will come to church this sunday, but needs a ride to get there.  What a great person she is!!

On Thursday, I went to Pan de Azúcar to interview a baptismal candidate of the hermanas in the district.  wow!  What a spiritual experience!  When President Cook told me I would be a district leader in my interview with him a while ago, he commented to me that: Isn´t it amazing that all through the world, if someone wants to join the true church, they have to go through a young man of only 19 or 20 years of age?  This is a huge trust that the Lord has given to me.  I prepared as best as I could and memorized the questions.  I think the interview went well. I felt the Spirit of discernment powerfully and in a very different way.  I felt that she was prepared for baptism, despite not perfectly knowing or understanding everything (duh, no one will).  I could see a light in her eyes, and I could see her as a member of the church.  I could feel that she has repented and changed. She will be baptized this coming saturday!

Ana is doing really well!  The plan is to have her baptism this sunday after church!!!  I wish I had time to go into more detail on her.  She is such a wonderful and peculiar person!  I just love her to death.  She is kinda quirky and funny, but she understands the gospel and is reading the Book of Mormon.  I´m not sure if she has a testimony of the restoration yet, and we still need to teach her all of lesson 4 and 5 this week (!) but we plan to work hard with her and with the members so she can be ready for baptism this sunday.  She came to stake conference with us yesterday!!!  This Sunday will be her third time attending church.  She really wants to be baptized and wants to change her life, and she seems genuinely committed.  Pray for her a lot!! :)

Stake conference was lovely.  Our stake president is super amazing.  the choir sounded nice too! :)  I can´t wait for the conference with Elder Oaks tomorrow!!!

I love you all so much and thank you for your continual support,

--Elder Max Olivier

yeah, apparently my memory isn´t that good

Family and friends whom I love very much,

It was a fantastic week!  I just cannot seem to remember many details! I am already following the footsteps of my father and becoming the absent-minded professor. ;) Just kidding!  But seriously.

The highlight of this week was definitely Ana Corbo.  We knocked a door on Monday night -- it was already dark, no one was in the streets, we didn´t have firm plans, and contacting is always pretty hard at that hour.  But we spoke to her in the doorway, she was super chill and really nice, she had gone to church with the sister missionaries once 10 years ago and is very religious and has attended many churches. She accepted the invitation to be baptized, and we set a return date.

That is always the test, to see if a person is actually chosen, actually committed.  The first lesson with Ana was one of the highlights of my whole mission!!!  It was super awesome.  She read the entire folleto that we left her, said that she wants to be baptized to set a good example for her daughter so she can also be baptized, she read part of the folleto to her brother and invited him to be baptized, and she was basically just super awesome!!!  We taught her about the restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon, and I think she understood well.  She still needs to understand completely the role of the priesthood and how this is the one true church of Jesus Christ.  But she´s getting there!  She already has an awesome desire to be baptized and is open to learn more.  She came to church with us yesterday and said she can go to stake conference in Maldonado this next sunday!!!  I loved our first lesson so much because she was so chill and open and honest and sincere, and our teaching was simple and done by the Spirit.  Her mom was also present, and at the end of the lesson she got out her guitar and sang a hymn for us about Jesus Christ!!!!!  It was SOOOO COOL!!!!!!!!!!!  She doesn´t see very well anymore but has played and sang since her childhood.

It is so exciting to find such a cool person.  I am so thrilled to help her progress in the gospel until she understands and receives the ordinances of salvation!

Pero ta. Ya se me va el tiempo.

The charla with Beatriz was a bit of a mess, but I have hope!  Yanci is doing better, but she doesn´t have a baptismal date anymore, and she has a boyfriend again.  But she´s out of the hospital and came to church with Olga!  And she committed to stop smoking -- she wants to, but not quickly . . . .   Pray for her -- I think she can progress!

I am going to be playing piano for the two-mission conference this month!  One of the TWELVE APOSTLES is coming to teach us!!!!!  I am super excited.  The choir is going to sing a very beautiful arrangement (by Sally DeFord, I think) of I Stand All Amazed.  I have been practicing the piano part, which is challenging and very beautiful.  I am also going to sing in the stake choir this sunday!  I am going to Montevideo on Wednesday to practice with the mission choir for the first time.  

Oh, I also conducted my first intercambio this week, with the elders in my house!  (I think that´s called an exchange?)  It went really well!

Well, we see miracles every day, my friends.  Know that I am so happy and that I am sharing my testimony in every moment.  I am so grateful that God has given me light and truth -- I am so grateful that I have personal certainty that sustains me and lifts me and invites the Spirit.  I LOVE the mission.  

Sorry for the lack of more details.  Love you all so much!

--Elder Max Olivier

foto -- a lovely family home evening with familia Barboza and recent convert Angela -- we did it last friday -- they are so awesome!  It was very spiritual and very fun.

Hark, all ye nations!

Dearest family and friends,

Yikes, this keyboard is a disaster, so I don´t know how much I will be able to write! Sorry! ;)

YYAAAAAYYYY for general conference!!!  It was such a fantastic experience for me. It was my first conference in the field and my second conference as a missionary.  It is way better as a missionary, because I have actively prepared and anticipated the conference and attempted to savor every word during the conference.  I hope you were all able to seek personal revelation through this great opportunity.  

A personal insight I can share that I felt at the beginning of Elder Holland´s talk comforted me greatly.  I realized and felt that I can only do so much ... I have limits.  I can always do more to improve and serve, but really the Lord is doing everything and making all the difference.  It´s Him, not me! It´s okay -- I cannot do everything by myself.  He can.  As I act in faith with real intent, He will consecrate my effort and He will refuse to let His children fall -- His arms will lovingly save us and others through us, so we never have to fall beyond hope.  Love!!! :)

During Elder Nielson´s talk, I thought a lot about Luisa.  We haven´t really had contact with her, except a text message.  We might just have to wait until she and her family are truly ready to enter in at the waters of baptism.  I am going try to set up a lesson with her in the church this week, and send her little messages with scriptures to read.  But we can only try, pray, fast, hope, and wait. 

I also thought of Yanci during the conference.  We had a very good, spiritual lesson with her.  She is doing very poorly and is back in the hospital for depression.  In that lesson, we committed her to truly pray and to take her weaknesses to the Lord.  However, I still don´t know if she did it.  She no longer has a baptismal date. :(

We found and taught Sebastian!  He is super cool.  I may have made a grave error by giving him a baptismal date as a goal, because he is living with his girlfriend.  Pray for him!  He has troubles with drugs but wants to get out, and he believes in God and would like to be baptized.

Miracle!!!  We called Beatriz, a woman we contacted in her door who miraculously accepted a Book of Mormon and said she was searching for truth.  We haven´t been able to have a lesson -- that was like two or three weeks ago.  But I called her and she went to General Conference!  She said she has been thinking about baptism and has lots of questions about the Book of Mormon. We have a lesson on Tuesday!!!

Love you all so much!  No time left here. I hope you enjoy the photos of this beautiful country.

Love,

Elder Max Olivier