Bonjour! 03/03/2014
This past week has
been pretty good! The work is going along well and we’ve been able to get some
more baptismal dates fixed so that was good. We had the baptism for Espoir as well this Saturday so that was really
fun. She is one of those who is from a part member family, and really made
things way to easy for us, she easily accepted everything, and gained a
testimony very quickly. We were able to have some of our Amis at the baptism as
well, which helps a lot. I don’t know what it is with baptismal services but
they are killer for the Amis. Its usually easier getting them to come to
baptismal services, and with the spirit that is there at those, it helps a lot
with motivating them. We still have many great Amis though, and many that is
making big sacrifices, and will no doubt be blessed for that. We had one for
example that was living in Concubinage, and had about every word of wisdom
problem possible. But he is a good friend with one of our members, who is
sealed in the temple, and has an incredible family. He has seen the blessings
in his life, and how happy he is, and as a result has already started turning
his life almost completely around, it will take some time to leave where he
was, but he is on a good start. I’ve had other Amis do that like Gilbert and
Ambroise, but none yet that have changed that fast. We have another one that is
getting baptized later this month named Ayele. She had already received the
missionary lessons before, but her problem was that she lived with her
conjoint, and it was him that was her financial support, and on top of that,
she doesn’t have living parents to help. We worked towards trying to talk with
her boyfriend and help him accept the gospel, but have found that he is very
Muslim and isn’t willing to change. Her faith has been amazing though, and she
has already started to work towards getting on her own, and leaving that
behind, which is hard as she depended on him, but no doubt she will be very
blessed because of her sacrifice. It’s really strengthened my testimony that if
we put the Lord first, he always takes care of his end, maybe not right away,
but he will.
On Thursday we had our conference with Elder Vinson, and it was
seriously incredible! It was based off of the results that he got on the survey
that we took and was very inspired as well. It’s incredible how they can
completely change the direction of the lesson by inspiration from the spirit.
It was centered on every topic from the atonement, and how the Lord can and
will help us carry our burdens, and also to obedience, and the importance of
following our spiritual desires rather than carnal desires. Once we can master
our carnal desires and control those it really changes everything almost. As
always as well, his testimony was incredible, and when he testifies about his
relationship with the Lord, the spirit is seriously amazing. He also talked a
lot about how great this area is in general. He actually didn’t have the
opportunity to serve a mission as he was converted after he was married, but
did say that if he had the choice on where he would serve a mission, it would
be here in West Africa, and said that no part of the world has been more
fertile than the Africa West area. It was an incredible conference though no
doubt, and you left seeing many things you could improve upon, but at the same
time with a very good feeling. As always as well, another thing that blows me
away is how strong their wives are, they are just as strong spiritually as
their husbands, its awesome!! Things are all good here, its pretty funny having
Elder Florion in the apartment, its been a little tough for him adjusting to
West Africa, but he’s doing well. He shaved his arms and legs hoping it would
cool him down but was unsuccessful. He also won’t stop tickling me at random
times of the day, and as he is about twice my size there isn’t much I can do. It’s
not too much of a problem though! Things are all going well though here!
I hope all is well there, I love
and miss you all a ton! I hope things go great for you this next week!
Elder Oliverson
Sorry no pictures this week we're at a different cyber and the USB
drive isn’t working for some reason? I'll send them next week though!
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