Finishing out strong

this week was a good week but i guess it was a little slow. i had exchanges out the ying yang and it was fun to go to paris and see all the boys and also to see the vision of the mission. we ahve really started to focuse on find families. i really like this vision and totally agree with it because that's what the church in france needs. 

things were good this week and we saw a whole lot of success we taught a lot of lessons, and of course we had some setbacks, but we really pushed on and it was a wonderful thing to see our amis come along little by little. transfers are next week and i'm really trying to push forward and finish this transfer out strong. hopefully we can finish with the baptism of anne and then it will be a storybook ending that's for sure. 

till next week

love elder oliverson

Anne is being baptised August 4th!

Hello everyone! This week was so weird i don't even know where to begin. Monday my birthday was super duper like always. the relief society made me a cake and they all sung and it was just great. the bad news was my comp got a speeding ticket while driving and i might have to pay for half. that's totally not cool. but it's ok i love him anyway. 

The rest of the week rolled on by. Tuesday i had a nice exchange with Elder Bouqet my favorite french companion ever. we had lots of fun talking about the old times and i'm really happy i had the chance to be his district leader and his companion

when i returned to st die is when the work really started. the day of my return we taught chantal and we had a wonderful talk about testimonies. she has a really strong one and sometimes i wish she'd give some of her testimony to me. she's so great. 

thursday was a day of work work work. we ported for 9 hours and guess what, we didn't get let in once. we were really discouraged and i decided i'd lie in bed and read some old testament to lift my spirits a little bit. while i was reading the old testament a call came and it was the elders in epinal. epinal is the only other branch in our region. i thought they were calling with questions about trains to paris for the leadership council but actually they were calling to give us a referral. yes they gave us a family from serbia. at that time i didn't think i could ever be happier than that, i was so wrong though!

Friday we taught our ami anne. Anne is just so great i can't even explain it. we had tried to fix a baptismal date with her but she told us it was too soon. she told me, assuming that i'd be the one leaving, that i wouldn't be able to see her get baptized. it was really a bummer for me because i have been with anne since the very beginning. but i told her that she needed to be fully engaged and that i wanted her to feel fully ready. she also told us she couldn't come to church on sunday because her birthday was on saturday and she was planning to leave st die. we were both a little bummed

saturday we made sure to send anne a nice birthday text just telling her how happy we were to teach her and wishing her a happy birthday. saturday we also saw our referral and they were so awesome. their french isn't amazing but it is still pretty good. we pull up the pamphlets in serbian and have them read a page and then we talk about it while their son translates the words they don't know. it's a long process but they're very attentive and it makes me happy. ha. all their kids are so cute too and i wont lie i really like how they all have black hair and really green eyes, it's cool. 

so Sunday rolls around and elder eldredge and i aren't expecting anything special, except for the ward meal of course. so we were in the foyer of our chapel greeting all the members and we see a green car stop in front of the church and anne gets out. anne can't drive because she is blind in one eye but she had her friend bring her to church. she came in and i shook her hand and she smiled and i asked her how her birthday was and her response was, "I'm going to be baptized." i started laughing and i said, "Oh yes, when?" and she said, "whenever you want." Now at this point i had no idea what to do. i looked at my companion and he was utterly lost. I looked back at Anne and i said, "Ok the 4th of August." she agreed and then began to tell me that she had spent her birthday alone, her mother didn't want to spend it with her and she had received a few visits from her friends but the thing that struck her the most were the texts from us and from our ward mission leader. she said that she knows that we have true love for people around us and she needs to join our church. after church we ate a wonderful meal with all the members and we ended the week on a very high note. 

just another week in st die

love you all

elder oliverson

20 is scary

this week. was a week of much deep reflection about my life. turning 20 is very scary and i don't feel like i'm 20. i remember looking at people who were 20 and thinking they were so big. oh goodness that's not me. 

this week i had the chance to talk to 2 of my favorite missionaries, elder foley and elder nielson. we talked a lot about life and i don't even think i can begin to thank them for all they've done for me. it really also showed me that the old generation is gone and that it's time that me and all of my friends really step it up and start showing the example. i'm scared.

i had the wonderful and also very tiring opportunity to translate for a german family this week in church. the thing about my translation is that one of the members decided to play a prank on my and only spoke in a tense that is used for formal speeches and writing. it made my brain hurt but it also made me realize that i have been so blessed with the gift of tongues. i hope that because of my service on my mission that i can continue to bless people around me with all the things i've learned.

this week i saw the role of recent converts in helping new people have friends at church. out recent convert chantal took it on herself to befriend our ami anne. she sat by her at church because it was off translating and i looked over and saw her answering questions and doing things i would normally do. i'm so grateful for the blessing chantal has been in my life

Chantel and us

Chantel Baptism

Still dosent like fishing

Hard work always pays off

Great week in the promised land of st dié. we have worked really hard this week and have actually seen a whole lot of success. it's crazy how like when you work you find success. we were porting and we probably knocked on 100 doors in a single night. everyone was either gone or just didn't want to talk to us at all. i was getting fed up. i saw a lady walking in the street and i started talking to her and she totally called her husband and we set up a rdv right there. so we went and they invited a friend as well. these people are evangelical so they looked at the book of mormon as if it were a snake. after some explanation everyone there said they'd take a book of mormon and read it. we have another rdv with them this wednesday so i hope things are going to go well.

another one of our stellar amis is anne. she is so nice and she just loves all things spiritual. this week we saw her and taught her the plan of salvation which was really good. at the end of the rdv she told us she couldn't come to church because she was having people over and she needed to be a good host. we told her we understood and we went on with our week. saturday morning she called me and told me how much she really wanted to go to church but it was too far for her to walk and she needed to walk her dog so it would be hard to do both. thanks to the wonderful branch members we were able to get her a ride and she came to church and loved it once again. 

this week we have to go all over the place so it will be a crazy week once again. hopefully i'm still alive to write another blog entry.

loves

elder oliverson

Ami came to church!!

This week was sweet in good old france. we worked really hard all week and i was feeling kind of discouraged because nothing happened. we taught lessons but they weren't super great to be honest and the amis just weren't really into us this week. needless to say it was tough at the beginning. but friday everything changed. we had a lesson with our ami whose name is anne. she is a super sweet lady but she just wasn't showing much progress. we had just given her the bom and as homework we gave her the introduction to read. we started the lesson as usual by her giving us some exotic fruit flavored syrup in our carbonated water. i was taking a casual sip after asking her if she read the bom. she promptly told me that she read it and that she was going to come to church because she prayed and god told her to go to church. i choked on my syrup and carbonated water and then i was speechless after. my companion hadn't understood what she said and the member with us just looked at me while i tried to search for words to say. i told her that i was at a lack of words and that i couldn't even explain the joy i was feeling. needless to say she came to church and loved it

at church another crazy thing happened. now in st die there aren't any black people in the branch and this sunday whilst welcoming the members to church i noticed a black man walk in and i started talking to him. come to find out he's from switzerland and his soon to be wife lives here so he moved here. he brought his wife to church with him and we should be starting teachings soon. all i can say is that the lord answers prayers