Morini 8:25-26

crazy week in st die. this week we set a baptismal date with our stellar ami chantal and it was just such a crazy lesson. so we started with a prayer and i offered it and immediately chantal began crying. i asked her a few questions as to why she was crying and we concluded with the fact that she things she's done things that she can't repent of. i pulled out a scripture that i had actually read from a cross reference in my personal study that morning. it's in moroni 8 verses 25 and 26. we told her that she needed to get baptized in order to fully start the process of her repentance and be on the right track for eternal salvation. we had been praying and practicing a lot for this date. the training program for missionaries says that the new missionary should ask the invitation to be baptized so we had practiced for hours getting all the stuff ready and teaching him how to say the invite question. the conversation had gone all over the place and was hard for him to keep up and he didn't really say much but when i turned to him and whispered to ask the question you could feel the spirit testifying that it was the right thing to do and it was really awesome to feel that and to see that for a new missionary. she accepted and now we are going all out to get her to stop smoking and all that stuff. she has the desires and she knows everything is true and now it's time to get over things that are carnal. easy enough.

i'm so thankful for all the new missionaries and for the chance we have to serve in france when the work is really picking up and things are going so well. we are all so blessed

with love

elder oliverson

Generation of a Mission

Elder Thomas Trained Jason. Now Jason is training Elder ...

I'm a trainer

woah it's been a crazy week!! so this week we've been working hard and seeing lots of sweet stuff happened. our ami chantal finally finished the book of mormon and she came to church. it's such a testimony of working hard and being patient and then finally seeing results. we have put a lot of our efforst with chantal in and the lord has seen that and really blessed us. sunday night rocked my world. we had just finished skyping with my family and i received a call from the assistants to tell me that i am training. i will be receiving a new missionary straight from the mtc and it's going to be so great. i'm kind of nervous but i think i'll be able to do it.

Ami Chantal

this week has been so eventful that it's not even funny. i don't think i've ever been this tired in my life. i've run through train stations and large cities and i just loved every second of it. after our legality in belgium we had an 11 minute period to get from gare du nord to gare de l'ouest so that was a pretty scary thought. as soon as our train pulled into gare du nord we hopped off and immediately began sprinting down the gare to the metro stop. we ran ran ran through the metro and as we came up to the metro car the death beep sounded and the doors started closing. i must have lost a lot of weight because i serious jumped through and i have no idea how. like i literally went airborne and jumped through, so stellar. luckily we made it home in time for one of the best lessons ever

we taught our ami chantal about the imporatance of going to church but that wasn't the cool part. the cool part was when she told us about how much the book of mormon has helped her since she started reading it. she told us that she feels a certain peace when she reads and while she's reading she forgets all her problems. she also said that she has seen a difference with her life and that she is ultimately nice to people. i think i have a similar testimony to that. it's so cool to progress with each investigator and really see them change. at first chantal had no hope for the world but now she is always smiling and we laugh all the time. so so so much fun

avec amour

elder oliverso

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!