You are awesome, more than you know. Never forget it! :)
Skype was wonderful last sunday! Happy Mothers´ Day to all! :) It was so cool to be able to talk to my family -- they are a fount of support and blessings and love. It was also amazing to speak Spanish with Grandpa Fred!!! :)
So. this week´s title comes from . . . our difficulties in our area! We have not had much to do and we have been kinda wandering around trying to find random people (members, former investigators, less-active members). We are both VERY excited for church tomorrow so we can finally get to know the ward for real and see all the members together.
Sunday we had lunch at the mission home with the Cooks!! OH my gosh what a treat and surprise. But we had to go to another church building because our meetinghouse was used for voting. Quack.
Monday was super fun! We went shopping in the morning to buy food for the zone conference on Tuesday. Elder Burnett (the Burnetts are the incredible senior couple of our mission) took us in his car to Tienda Inglesa and from there we went to the mission home to cook with Hermana Burnett. Sadly I didn´t get a picture with her, but I did get one with Hermana Cook who was kind enough to let us use the mission home´s dream kitchen -- she also helped us cook a bit and later made guacamole for us. We made burritos -- they were SO good -- that´s something you don´t get to have in Uruguay! YUM. See the two photos. :) After the cooking, we went and had lunch with the Burnetts in their lovely apartment! They are some of the most generous and loving people ever. Then we went with Elder Burnett to look at a house for us to move in to -- it was kinda good, but dark and dank and a bit sad. But thankfully he decided not to buy that one. We have been looking for other houses in our area.
Tuesday -- the conference was lovely. Interviews with President just always make me feel better and make me realize that I don´t have to be perfect and that my best try is all that is expected of me. God´s grace is amazing. Pte Cook told me that I can measure my progress as a missionary by my development of Christlike attributes and my desires to serve others and the love that I feel for others. I loved that measure of progression! I translated for Hna Cook when she talked one-on-one with several latino missionaries -- it was fun! But I had to miss the workshop of one of the assistants.
The rest of the week was kinda lame . . . but whatever! We´re just doing the best we can and I´m sure we will be blessed by the Lord to see fruits over time.
We had an incredible spiritual experience yesterday by visiting an active member named José Luis. He is quite old and appears to have suffered strokes or aphasia or something, because he can´t talk very well at all. But he is an amazing man. He is sooooooo happy and smiles a lot and he LOVES the missionaries. He walks with a prosthetic leg. The poor soul lives all alone in his little apartment. We were chatting with him a bit, sang a song and said a prayer, and then he bore his testimony to us immediately and out of the blue. It was one of the most powerful things I have ever experienced. The Spirit hit all three of us and filled the room so sweetly. All he could say was something like this: "Jesus Christ. Wonderful. Heal me paralysis. Joseph Smith saw personages. Thomas S Monson prophet. Book of Mormon word of God." I almost wept because the Spirit´s presence was so strong with his testimony! I know that he has a perfect witness that Jesus is the Christ. My companion and I immediately thought of the same scripture -- 3 Nephi 11. We read the part where Jesus appears and bears testimony of who He is -- our great Redeemer. I will never forget the incredible spiritual power and joy and peace that I felt in that little apartment with that humble man. I too know that Jesus Christ lives and loves us. His Atonement is real. His grace is sufficient. Praise the Lord! Be of good cheer!!!
Well, my time is gone. Here´s to another great week!
I love you all very much!
Elder Max Olivier
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