District Love

this week has been super busy and super awesome. besides having wonderful exchanges with wonderful people in wonderful places we've been working hard to find some great amis of our own. the last 2 days of the week we have planned to knock doors all day. obviously we were super excited (sarcasm) and weren't dreading 8 hours of knocking doors at all. that morning we decided to study dilligence and apply it into our day. so we did. during those 8 hours of porting we found 4 people that talked to us for about 30 minutes. last night we found a lady that told us if we were ever in her small village again then we could call her and she'd cook us food. it's crazy what happens when you work dilligently and with a good attitude

as district leader i took the liberty to give our district a name. i named us district love because i feel a need to love everyone all the time. i just thought that was cute so i decided to mention the district love in there

thursday i had an exchange with one of my best friends from the mission, the one and only elder wilson. we did service for his branch president where we hauled wood and all that good stuff. this gave us a lot of time to talk and really catch up on the past 6 months. it's crazy to see how much we've both grown in the spirit and just as people in general. i can't even imagine what another 6 months will do to us. all in all i can truly say that we have both grown for the better and really progressed spiritually and well as just generally. it's so sweet to see that. now i just need to have an exchange with elder barr to see what type of growth he's made. he's almost like a ghost now, or maybe even an urban legend because i don't even see him anymore. sad!

all is well in st die. our baptismal date has super sweet integration with the branch and it's just great. this branch is so sweet. they love the missionaries so much. i found out saturday night i was going to give a talk on sunday so i just prepared something really quick and went and was lead by the spirit. it was a super great experience and all the members afterward kept saying how we were the best missionaries ever. i really like saint die even though it's small. 

avec amour,

elder oliverson

Feels like Home

well my first week in saint die was pretty sweet. saint die is a small town which is like an exact replica of smithfield. it was so funny when we got in i seriously thought i was at home. it is surrounded by small mountains which are covered by trees. hmm sounds a lot like smithfield to me. my new companion is named elder martin and he's from utah. he went to byu and i'm super stoked to be able to work with him. we have already had some sweet miracles together so i think there is a lot more to come. 

the first session of conference we got to watch with one of our investigators which was such a sweet blessing. her name is georgette and we actually set a baptismal date with her. she has a son who is a member so it makes things a little easier. so after we watched that session of conference with her we shared a few scriptures on prophets and then just bore testimony like none other. the spirit was thick in there and i was loving every minute of it. there was no way she could have denied that spirit. she said she couldn't put her feelings into words so i took that to be a good sign! ha

that same saturday we were knocking doors in a small ville that is right next to ours. we came across this one lady who was catholic but let us give her a short lesson on her porch. so we taught her some simple doctrine about our heavenly father and prayer and then i asked if we could pray with her. she let us and after the prayer i opened my eyes and she was crying. she grabbed my hands as quick as lightening and kissed one and told me i was a saint. she said she couldn't meet with us anymore because we didn't believe in the virgin mary but it was still a super sweet experience

i'm sending lots of love your way so send some mine

yours truly

elder oliverson

District Leader!!

well i am leaving tours. i am going to a town called st dié to be district leader. elder wilson is now in my district so you could say i am pretty pumped to do exchanges!

What a great week!

woah what an amazing week. so i will only be able to share 2 experiences since so many happened and i don't have the time

monday: so we had a hard week the week before last and we were feeling a little down on sunday the 17 so we decided to fast. well we found no new investigators or anything that sunday so we were a little down again. then monday rolled around and we decided that we were going to go porting in a huge apartment building. we ported that whole thing and we were just talking to muslims and weird french people. then we came to the last door. if there was like a scripture that talked about the last door or something i would feel better but we always get it at the last door. and there was an african lady who asked us some questions:

Me: we are the representatives of jesus christ and we are here to

Her cutting me off: Where do you pray

Me: we pray everywhere

Her: are you jehovah's witnesses?

Me: oh heavens forbid no

Her: ok come in

so we went in and found in her other room 3 other african ladies with their bibles out just studying the word of god. the lady entered the room again and told us of a dream her friend had where all the africans there played with 2 white men. they said it was a sign that we were from god and we know that it was a sign that god had noted our efforts

Thursday: thrusday we had a 70 come and totally blow our mind with doctrince. i brought a question as any good person would and within the first 5 minutes he had answered my question. it has been a while since i felt such a spiritual confirmation as i did when he uttered the simple answer to a question that seemed so complex to me. i know now that it is so vital to bring questions to every church meeting i go to. i mean yes when there's a member of the 70 you really want to be focused. i can't tell you everything that he said because it took up more than 3 pages in my journal, but i can tell you that he is an inspired man of god. you can see it in his eyes. it's the same thing i see when i read something from president or sister poznanski. they are inspired to receive revelation for our well being as missionaries. that's why this week i invite everyone to search the words of the ancient prophets (BOM Bible) as well as the modern prophets (Talks doctrine and cocenants etc) reading talks has really boosted my studies to a new level. I could read 2 Nephi for the rest of my life and still find something new every time i read it. That's the beauty of it all

So much for this week! Love you all

Elder Oliverson

Berenger

This week was a different week and because of the weather our chance to see Elder Richards was shortly postponed. Luckily we have the chance to go this Thursday, all is well that ends well right? The major highlight this week was, once again, our investigator Berenger. He is the investigator i feel that i have the most ties with because he is someone that i contacted and have been teaching him from day one. he is from the ivory coast and his family still lives there. he's had a difficult life and is just one of the nicest guys ever. he is also super tall.

So this week with berenger we decided we needed to focuse on the prophets and just keep up with how we was doing concerning baptism. we have set 2 dates with him but because of work and his problems with the word of wisdom he hasn't been able to be baptized. the lesson on prophets was one of the smoothest lessons i've had on my mission. everything just meshed together and we know that when everything meshes together the spirit always guides it. in the end we were talking about the baptism and berenger pointed at me and said that he remembers when i told him in the first lesson that god would show him that the book of mormon was true. i also told him that it would take time and it would come by little things not by a vision or a something grandiose like that. he remembered that, i don't want to sound like a bad missionary but i don't remember that, it happened over a month ago and like i just don't remember testifying but he remembers it clearly. when people feel their first taste of spiritual experiences they remember it clearly. i think i still remember the very first time i really felt the spirit. it took me all the way till 9th grade and we were having a very nice parting testimony meeting in seminary. i just remember seeing all these kids i knew testify of the truthfulness of the gospel and there was no way to stifle the spirit. of course i stifled it a lot since then but now i feel i am fully invested in maximizing my spiritual capacite. i challenge everyone reading to see if they can remember the first time they really felt the spirit. it's cool to sift through the ideas that spin in your head and really try and pinpoint the first time you recognized that the spirit was testifying of truthfulness. so do it!

Back to Berenger, he told us that he would be baptized by april 21 at the latest. i hope more than anything that i am here to see his baptism. never have i see a man with purer intentions. man i love berenger

The love of service

Crazy week this week but it has been a good one as well. as a result of the hard work elder foley and i put in the week prior we have been stacked with lessons, almost too many lessons! one of the greatest things i saw this week was towards the end and it was very unpredicted, usually the best things are. Friday one of our main amis thomas was gone and we saw his wife and her son with one of the wonderful members of the branch of Tours. We had been stuggling a little bit with this family but we had a new kind of hope for their future in the church this lesson. Things got going and one of the weirdest things that happened on my mission happened during this lesson, we found out that Thomas was already baptized in the church! Elder Foley and I were super confused and so we asked Thomas about it the next day at church. Come to find out he was baptized and was only sitting in on the lessons to help his wife get baptized. That was the weird thing now here is the amazing thing, his wife said that after watching the way the missionaries present themselves and serve she knows that she needs to be baptized in this church and will bring her son with her. there is not a better feeling than hearing that someone wants to bring their family unto the gospel

another thing happened that really opened my eyes to missionary service in general. tuesday i was helping Elder Foley set up for district meeting and we received a call from Elder Bouqet. He proceeded to ask about all the amis and the people in the ward. One thing that I admire dearly of Elder Bouqet is the love he has for the people he serves. that's all he has ever wanted to do is serve people and it was a real testimony builder for me to see how much he truly cares for people. it is also a direct reflection of how much he loves the gospel and knows without a doubt that it will bless everyone. all i can say is you learn something from every companion, even if you don't realize it in the moment. that was a truly touching phone call.

This week we have a meeting with someone from the 70 so i am super stoked for that. there should be some hidden gems that Elder Foley and I can take to Tours and really bless the lives of some people. 

 

I love the mission! photo from last transfers district

ALSO!!!

Natacha got baptized in Strombeek!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is funny because Elder Foley and I created a prayer list at the start of this transfer and one of the first names i put on it was Natacha. I saw the potential she had to be a great member of the church and when she stopped answering our calls it felt like i'd lost one of my best friends. This is just another testimony that prayer works! man i can't explain in words the joy that i felt when i read that. 

 

Call me Bond, Jason Bond.

this week elder and foley and i had many adventures, some adventures that brought me back to the days of my young rebellions in little ole cache valley. running from lesson to lesson really tires a missionary out so one day me and elder foley decided we needed to partake in the trademark of tours and head down the secret alley, diagon alley we call it, and purchase a large pastry. yes it is true there is a place in tours that sells pastries that are 3 times the size of every other pastry. tours is famous for a pastry, and this is being translated into english, called a religious. the special thing about these pastries at the special shop is they are about 5 times the size of a regular religious, they are huge! with all that being said we bought those and there is a picture that should represent the utter horror of eating a pastry that large. in the middle of these delights there is something very similar to chocolate pudding. the outside is just a flaky crust thing and chocolate on the top so that should give a little backing for the picture.

besides teaching and finding amazing new investigators we also had to be a little sneaky to find us some less actives. we took a train to a small town called amboise, probably about the size of hyde park, and evidently there was a castle smack dab in the middle. we had our work brains on so we penciled, "see the amboise castle," on our list of p-day/non hardcore work activity things to do. that's also beside the point. the point is there was a less active and we had taken a train to get to this little town of desolation and we weren't leaving till we saw this less active, after our lesson of course. we arrived at the house and it looked like a scene from a missionary horror story. there was a long grass patch in front of this house that had been matted down by the numerous passing of the car that sat in front of the closed shed which we could see was used as a garage. debris of all sorts like the man made path and an unleashed dog lay barking beside the car. we looked on this horror from the gate and rang the doorbell. now as i have explained before the doorbells in france all have these stupid phones on the inside that connect and you talk through a speaker. we rang that while standing on the outside of the gate and no one answered. typical. at this point is where my rebellious youth paid off in missionary work i immediately said, "let's jump the fence." knowing myself and knowing elder foley this idea was not farfetched at all. his eyes lit up and he smiled and said, "After you my friend," taking the iniative i jumped the fence and walked down the path, covert ops style of course. to make a long story short we found this family and shared a short message. they were extremely grateful that someone would come and see them and had health reasons why they had not been attending church. they said they'd come and we left happy. This just brought to my memory all the trespassing and mischieft i did when i was home. it's true, our whole lives we have been prepared for our missions. luckily i had a sweet companion who would trespass a little to save a soul.

this brings us to sunday which will be the more serious part of this blog entry. there is a recent convert in tours who we are super good friends with, his name is emmanuel. we taught a lesson to him and the other 2 recent converts on fasting and fast sunday during church. when it came to the talk of fast and testimony meetings he said, "missionaries never share personal experiences in their testimonies, it's always just; I know the church is true and that God loves us." elder foley and i took this personal and we both told him we would share personal experiences. i decided to share an experience that probably this person doesn't remember or hardly ever think of. I remember one day my wonder chuffed english brother in law came to my domain (for those of you that know me my domain was the basement, i'm sure close friends smile at that) while i was watching tv. He came in with his usual approach of being polite and asking what i was watching. then i remember him saying so clearly that he regretted not going on a mission every day of my life. for the longest time it baffled me why he said that because at this time in my life i really wasn't thinking about a mission too much. For some reason every time i though about a mission i was brought back to spencer and that conversation we had in my basement. i decided to share that as the base of my testiomony and then share how grateful i am for all the wonderful influences in my life such as my other brother in law dick, or ricky as we like to call him ;), and my dad as well as the examples of people's lives that i have seen that don't serve missions. but really i thought about that with spencer and i never realized what an impact one sentence could have on a person. who knows if i would be here right now if spencer hadn't pointed out the regret from not going. for a number of months during my mission it still baffled me as to why he would say that, but after some talks i have read and the recent scripture studies i have done i have totally found it and i am grateful that my goofy english brother in law told me that while i was probably watching sportscenter or arrested development. once again i am so grateful for all the wonderful examples in my life. i wish i could name them all but i just can't. hopefully spencer doesn't mind getting called out over my blog, i believe apart from my family i have 6 readers, haha! I love you all and till next week!
Avec amour,
Elder oliverson

 Before

After (-:

 The jungle!