Pearl

Bonjour!                                                                                                            05/19/20104

Things have been pretty good this past week. It’s been really strange being back in Be Kpota again, but it’s been good. We have a ton of new converts, but now are looking for Amis, so this past week has been really just getting that more established. The work has been going well though, even though we haven’t been able to do a ton of work in the secteur! On Wednesday night the zone leaders had a little meeting with the Stake Presidency. I have to give them a lot of credit though, as they are trying their best to get things going more in the stake member and missionary wise. They have a really strong desire of following what the prophet said in hastening the work and having the members and missionaries become united. A lot of good ideas came out, and they have a nice little program they are hoping to get going. Yes the church is super young here, but its clear that with the desire they have to advance the work here, in just a couple years the church will be incredible here. But yeah the meeting went really well! We don’t have a ton of Amis right now, but are trying to work with the members in getting some. 

As we were talking with a member the other day, he told us an awesome story and testimony. He and his wife just barely had a baby. And he was explaining that when the baby came they had to do a c-section on his wife. I’m not quite sure how that all works here, but after having the surgery done, she was with all of the other women in the recovery room. He was saying the doctor came in to give them their next orders, and told them that they couldn’t eat anything for a little while, but instead of eating they could drink Lipton tea. The doctors recommended that that would be the best thing for all of them. He explained to the doctor that she wouldn’t drink tea, because of the word of wisdom, but found a drink mix called Milo, that could give her energy instead. The doctor and everyone there got really mad, and were asking him why he thinks he is smarter than the doctor, and that tea is the best thing for her to drink. He explained that he had more trust in God, than in the doctors, so his wife didn’t drink tea, but another drink instead. The doctors kept insisting on it, but she stayed strong. He explained that after a little while, of all the women there that had gotten the surgery done, she was the one who healed the fastest out of all of them, and is in the best condition. It was really cool hearing his testimony of the work of wisdom, and seeing his trust in the Lord. It would have been easy for them to just give in a little, in this situation only, but they stayed strong, and great blessings came. It was really cool seeing how big of an impact that experience had on them as well.

 Things are going well in the zone also. We're getting ready for a zone meeting tomorrow. My companion is giving the lesson, and he was telling me about a story that he will be using, and one that Elder Vinson had shared with him. It’s about these people that had a super precious, and expensive pearl. One of the most precious in the whole world, and was gorgeous, and so they were going to put it on display. So to do so, they got a really nice table and decorations to present the pearl, and then they invited people to come see. He explained that they were stunned, because when people came, they kept talking about how nice the table was, and were so intrigued by that, that they barely even noticed the pearl. He compared that to us as missionaries, as we have the most precious message in the world, but, often people get distracted by us as missionaries, and how nice we are, or how much they like us personally, which takes their attention off of the message. This in result leads to not really converted people, and people that are converted to the missionaries rather than the gospel. It was a story that I liked a lot, and I think it is huge for this mission, as people are so nice, and often love the missionaries. So our goal needs to be not to have the attention on us, but on the message instead. So hopefully that will go well! But yeah, not too much is new here, its supposed to be the rainy season, and cooling down, but it seems to just be getting hotter... All is going well with the work, I love my companion he’s the best. We have a good apartment as well with a Tahitian and a Scottish. Ha-ha I feel like I’m always in a movie or something with his accent. But yeah, things are going great here! I love and miss you all a ton!

 Thanks for everything!  Elder Oliverson