Week one in Fance, Belgium

ok well this is on a french keyboard and i really don't want to try to figure anything out so the grammar will be terrible. ok so my first day in paris was a little overwhelming. they hand us boms and tell us to hand them out on the metro. me and elder barr successfully tag teamed a lady and gave her a pamphlet. we are stellar. that day went by super fast and ended with an american burger. the burger wasnt so american the bum was like a crouton, like the things on salad i cant spell of do parenthesis. we woke up the next morning and took a tram into paris. after seeing notre dame, i hope my mother puts pictures up it was pretty stellar, we got to meet our new trainers. my trainer's name is elder thomas and he is such a sweet guy. i'm very thankful to have him!

i took a train into belgium, im serving in brussels in case you were wonder. Brussels is the capital of Belgium. The first day we went contacting and had no success whatsover. I'm definitely fluent when it comes to being rejected. The days went by and we really didn't have much sucess. We got stood up by all our all appointments until we met with Nadia. She is an African woman. the lesson went very well and we taught about the gospel of christ. the gospel of christ is faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. Let's just say i endured to the end with this lesson and asked her to be baptised at the end. You may think it was just blue fire, they call greenies blues in the Paris mission, but no it was real. She accepted the baptismal invite and we told her we would pray about a date. Mission work is easy right? ha ha. right after that i was on cloud 9 and we talked to an African guy named goody. he actually reminded me a lot of dalton goody.

Our other golden investigator is named ludovic. He is super interested and is friends with a member named samuel. we are going to teach him tomorrow and have a baptismal date that we will run by him which is the 24th of november. he has already read all of first nephi and he is apparently posting a ton of stuff on his facebook from general conference. Can you say golden? I think we will teach him the restoration tomorrow and then i will once again pop the baptismal question. keep tuned for the results in the next e mail

Brussels is amazing. of course it is super filthy and I would never raise a family here, but it is so sweet. there is history, as well as fashion, everywhere. oops mom i just bought another pair of shoes. dont worry they are very fashionable you would be proud. my companion is very cool but i do miss elder barr, wilson, and the others too mostly them, but i miss the soeurs so much as well. it is just me and thomas in the apartment but thats ok we are good friends already. we had our first burrito fete on sunday. burrito fete is when you make burritos because we all get pretty hungry for that good ole mexican cuisine. you will see everything in the pictures. i will explain everything more then. oh ya GO GIANTS!!!!

Love you,

Love elder oliverson

my teacher brother larimer, he is so sweet!

me with brother sybrowsky. he might be my idol

me and my french pals

He made it There!! ALIVE (-:

Dear Brother and Sister Oliverson,

            Sister Poznanski and I were delighted to welcome your son, Elder Jason David Oliverson, into the France Paris Mission on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012.  He and his MTC companions were enthusiastic and all arrived in good health.  He spent his first day eating some home cooked food, napping, visiting with me, contacting non-members in the heart of Paris, and sharing testimonies in our home.  We enjoyed his spirit.

            The next morning, after a mission orientation, Elder Oliverson left for his first assignment to work in the Strombeek Belgium Area with Elder Thomas, who will be his trainer.

We feel very privileged to work with your son.  We also realize the responsibility we share with you to help him continue to grow spiritually as he faithfully performs his duties.  May the Lord inspire us all to sustain him in this challenging and exciting assignment.  We hope you will join Sister Poznanski and me in praying each day for your son, his companion, investigators, and all of us serving in the France Paris Mission.

            A positive, supportive letter from home every week does wonders to sustain a missionary’s morale.  Proverbs 25:25 states:  As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.

Final WEEK!! 10/16/12

So for quatre carre, 4 square in French, we all chose presidents or presidential candidates to represent ourselves. Elder Barr is Ron Paul, Elder Wilson is Mitt Romney, Elder Wallace is Barrack Obama, Elder Louis is Hermain Cain, Elder Calves (If you remember Elder Calves he is the one who told me he loved me when he was teaching me, he is a short dark haired frenchman, he is actually sitting across from me and I'm helping him translate a letter from French to English) he is Napoleon which is so funny and fits him so well, Elder Joly (Formerly known as the baker) is Nicholas Sarhcozy, and I am, of course, Abraham Lincoln. After a devastating put out by Ron Paul I began to gave my Gettysburg, or rather, my MTC address. It goes as follows:
"4-Square and seven weeks ago we can to this MTC looking to learn French. We found something else along the way, that thing being love. As I speak of love you may think of your copine (girlfriend in French) but I think of another I find my love in 4-squares, 4-squares that define a district a district of Englishmen trying ever so hard to be French, in vain of course. If I learned one thing, It's that a district cannot stand divided, the district must be one in their desires for 4-square. thank you, avec amour (with love) A dieu (to god)
As you can see I've been deprived of anything that involves the outside world. If any of my readers (they probably number around 6 or 7 including my family) want to just write me and give me all the info they would think I would ever need that would be fine. As I look back on my MTC address I realize that it is a wonderful thing to be put together with 8 people I had nothing in common with and slowly and surely you find them to be some of your new best friends. I'm sad as well as very excited to be leaving the MTC, the only thing that I know is that quatre carre (there is an accent on the e so it is pronounced car ay) will live with me forever!

The next story I have might have well been out greatest prank while at the MTC. So my mother decided to leave me a message at the front desk. The last time someone from our zone got a message from the front desk they got their mission changed. It was a haitian creole speaker who got transferred to boston. Of course it was just a message to get my suit dry cleaned, but we decided to have a little fun with our zone leaders, Elder Louis and Elder Wallace. We decided we would tell them I had troubles with my visa and had to be relocated to Washington DC for a couple of months till things got straightened out. This honestly worked better than I ever hoped it would. We all decided to put our sad faces on and pretend something was wrong and when they walked in the room you could cut the tension with a knife. The reason this was extremely bad was because we got our travel plans that day and everyone was just really excited because we were finally going to France. They came in with the highest of spirits knowing that we all were supposed to have our travel plans. When they came in it was like someone had just died. No one said a word or even looked up.
Elder Louis, being the caring Boston man from the hood he is, said, "Yo wa's da deal wit dat note?" (Try hard to do that in your best thug accent, if you don't know what a thug accent is open another tab and youtube it)
I swiftly and harshly replied, "Rien" ("Nothing" in French)
The zone leaders were taken aback. No the ever so jovial elder Oliverson is mad about something. This can't be.
I then began to storm out of the room.
After I was gone the soeurs told the story just as we plan and I understood it was with much conviction.
Wallace then said, "Keep him in your prayers."
Gym went by ever so sluggishly and I put my best, "my travel plans have been changed and I'm not going to France" face on. This went on till almost dinner. Let me tell you it started at lunch. Finally after TALL (TALL is our language study that hardly works, it told us that the napkin and briefcase were the same thing) Then the leaders pulled me in and began interrogating me. They asked me every awkward question you could ever think of. Honestly think of an awkward question and they asked me. It was so hard not to laugh and finally I said, "Can I show you guys something?" I began to show them my travel plans and they were so worked up I honestly haven't the words to explain it. The MTC doesn't focus too much on insults or ways to tell people they're a joker so they proceeded to call me things like a small dog and a large cow. I found that more comical than the fact that we punk'd them. It is now the ongoing joke in our district that I'm not going to France.

The MTC is something I wouldn't trade for the world but wouldn't want to experience again. For all the readers out there be sure to read next week, it will be funny I assure you.
Avec Amour
Elder Oliverson

Saran wrap at its best!

So this week Elder Wilson came across some serran wrap, I have no idea if that's how you spell it so I will refer to it as wrap throughout this stoy. Nobody knew he had this wrap, he had taken it from the give away box and was secrectly hiding it with his delicates. Wilson is a speed showerer, by speed showerer I mean he is always the first one finished. I'm usually the second to last one finished. The last person is always Elder Barr but we will get into that later in the story. I finish my post-gym shower and methodically begin putting on my clothes when I realize I can't find the shoes I wore that day. It was so strange because I looked all over the room and there's only one place shoes could really be. As my sickness kicked in I medaphorically "gave up the ghost" (I'm not sure if that's ok to say, but we have an ongoing joke that when someone falls asleep during a talk or something they "gave up the ghost") I just decided to put on my other shoes and find the missing pair later. Wilson told me that I needed to look under my pillow for my shoes. This was odd but of course I lifted the pillow and looked for my shoes. Nothing. He said, "No, more under than that." I looked under my bed and of course I found my shoes there with a ton of wrap on them. This sparked Wilson's mind and we began to wrap some of Barr's possessions. We had time for this because he took an exceptionally long shower this day and we just kept going. After we had wrapped his watch and his pillow we decided that was enough.

 

The day went on and Barr had no idea that anything was wrong. Little did he know Wilson and I were hatching an ever so devious plan. Barr likes to read or do things like that till it's time for lights out. He usually forgets to brush his teeth and ends up doing it while we are all lying in the dark. Lately I have been playing mother and reminding him to brush his teeth, but this day I would not. This day I would let him read to his little heart's content. He then would need to brush his teeth and after he left the room Wilson and I would work in the dark and make a wrap wall from one post of his bed to the other. I guess my nagging had gotten to Barr (my mom would have liked him because her nagging did nothing to me :) ) and he decided that he would brush his teeth at 10:20 which is ten minutes before quiet time. We had almost admitted defeat but then at about 10:26 Barr needed a bathroom break and once again there was a little light to our plan. As soon as Barr left we scurried out of our beds, turned the lights off, and began work. We knew it was early for lights out but we thought we could overpower Barr with a 2-1 type of thing. We made a wall the likes of the great wall of china from his bed posts which made it impossible for him to enter bed without going through it.

 

Barr came back from his potty break and said, "Oh, is it lights out already?" I quickly replied with, "Yes will you bouche le port." bouching the port is french derived. It means to clog. We clog the bottom of the door so the light doesn't sleep through. This way we can sleep like the spiritual bats we are. I'm sorry the verb boucher is to blog. I wouldn't want to be preaching false French. We conjugate it. I don't know how to spell I'm sorry. Anyways. The light seeping through from the open door was just enough to put a slight glare on the wrap. Wilson lept out of bed like a cougar (Wilson goes to BYU so there's the joke) and slammed it shut. This was strange behavior nontheless. All the sudden my boyishness crept into me and I began to giggle at the thought of what happened next. Between laughs I tried to cover it up by saying, "Bouche (ha ha ha ha) that's such a funny word!" Barr was jovial after bouching the port (port is a door or doorway or something like that, sorry I forgot to mention it and bouche is pronounced like boosh) I could see nothing in the pitch dark room but I knew he was heading towards his doom and Wison and I's pure ecstacy. It seemed like hours till he got into the bed and then, finally, I heard it. "AHHHHHHH." It was like nothing any other human could muster. Only that of a ghost who'd been long dead for hundreds of years. In your mind think of a groan and a moan and then find a happy median in between that's where this sound was. Laughter erupted from me. I'd lost all sanity and the giggles took over. I could see nothing but I heard the rustling of the wrap and the discomfort of Elder Barr. As he folded the wrap up he threw it at me and I went to bed a happy person.

 

Final story I'll make it short because I'll be gonig over my alotted time.

 

So one day I came across our old friend the baker in the laundry room. Coincidently it was right after I sent off the first e-mail involving our 4-square. We struck up a conversation in broke French and English. I began to ask him about his favorite American films. He said he loved the avengers and we began to discuss the movie, at this point another Frenchman named Demuynk (or something like that) chimed in and was talking. I told them how much I loved Thor and they all agreed.  Some smart dude who thought he was funny from across the table said, No, no, no Captain America is clearly the best. We all had a good laugh and then I said, Maybe one day they will have a captain France!" The baker found this to be very funny he said, in his wonderful French English accent. "yez zen we could 'ave a super'ero wiz a baggette, a barret, and some cheeze. Zat would be great. I can juz imagine a man 'itting villians wiz 'iz baggette and spreading bottles of wine everywhere." We had a nice little laugh and we became ever better friends

 

 

The four square legend

At the MTC things get to be pretty repetitive. It is so horrible most times but really allows creativity to flourish. Gym is the only way the over anxious teenage boys get to release some of their cooped up energy at the MTC. For our district gym time had gotten to be one of the repetitive things, but one day our fate was changed for the better. We were doing some district abs (we consists of Elder Barr, Elder Wilson, and I) and began to watch the 4-square game going on in the gym. One particular French native we love, and which we have nick-named the baker for reasons I will explain later, was playing with all the smoothness of a baker flattening dough or cooking a wonderful pastry. We call this man the baker because if you put a white apron on the guy and put one of those goofy hats that bakers wear, he would look exactly like a stereotypical French baker. With that picture on mind think of this baker effortlessly slapping the ball and dominating the game which is 4-square. Sure his mobility was limited, but if you hit it anywhere near his area he was all on that. In other words he doesn't miss. This sparked interest in members of the district and we decided we would try our hand at the 4-square court outside the MTC. We all came prepared and we began playing. The competitive nature of 4-square matched with all our athletic abilities led to a great gym time. There was joy there was pain and most of all there was hard competition. Everyone is a threat in 4-square. The best part of all happened saturday. We began our game outside fully believing that it would be another inner district game. We were the only district brave enought to play 4-square. As we played we beheld the most pleasent surprise of the day, we saw the baker walking towards our 4-square game. To play with the legend was a dream I had since that Thursday. He was the baker and he didn't even know it. As usual this game of 4-square had a lot of hard fought competition and it was a lot of fun. There will be videos soon and I hope that my family is capable enought to post them on my blog. I would never want you to miss out on the great joy of 4-square at the MTC.

 

Along with the great games we play we have amazing teachers in Soeur Larsen and Frere Larimer. Larsen is a former Paris missionary and is so much fun. I have got her to break character 3 times while teaching out "Investigators." The reason investigators is in quotes is because it is our teachers playing the parts of people they taught on their missions. Although I've got Soeur Larsen to laugh 3 times only 1 was on purpose. Oops! She laughed during my baptismal commit because she said it reminded her of my law of chastity pitch. Nevertheless we are now done with our second investigators and we asked brother Larimer where his character Jean Michelle went. He promptly responded with, "He was walking to church and got hit by a bus, he is dead, c'est la vie. It sounded much funnier in my head and in French, but it was still great. he kept saying things like c'est normale and things like that. Just the fact that we'd been speaking French all day and our day was almost over made us tired and everything extremely funny. Oh life at the MTC. I can't wait for France I'm anxious and excited and I just want to be there!