Bonjour! 08/23/2014
This past week has
been pretty good, as we’ve been holding the fort down with President being in
Togo for the week. On Monday we had a soccer activity here for all the missionaries
against the members. Like usual it was pretty rough to say the least. Ha-ha,
seeing that we started the game off with multiple Americans, as our Ivoirian
elders hadn’t gotten there yet, we got in a pretty big hole, and there was no
coming back. In the end we lost 6-2, but hey it could have been worse. On the
bright side I had my football, so that made the loss not feel too bad at all!
We started the week off with a really good FHE with one of our families, and
watched "The Testaments". That on is a killer! I’ve never watched it here without
seeing someone cry. its good though for helping them understand the
Saviors love for us, and also the fact that he visited the Americas. On Tuesday
I spent half the day taking some elders to the dentist. And on top of that they
all got teeth removed, so we spent a while there. It just reassured me as well
to never go to a dentist here, Ha-ha.
We’ve been super busy, so we haven’t been able to get a ton done in the secteur, but its still been good, as we’ve found a couple new Amis, and have received a ton of contacts as well. So now we just need the time to go visit them! This past week though we have had the time to visit a few in actives though which has been good. Because there aren’t many members here in the secteur, there aren’t many people to visit those in actives. The visits though have really showed me that it doesn’t really take much to help them out, but really just visiting them, and helping them feel loved and that you we're thinking about them already does a ton. So it was nice getting the chance to visit some of them! One in particular has been baptized for a while, but refuses to get the Priesthood, as he’s worried if he does, his family we curse him with voodoo or something. So it’s been tough trying to get him to understand, but hopefully that will come along! That’s one of the tough things here is most people believe in that, so when you try to counsel them to avoid it and such, they just say that you don’t understand being from America. Which is why its really nice having an African as a companion who can back you up, and teach the truth. That comes in handy a lot for sure. For example this past week we got talking to a group of guys, and they told us they were having a little discussion about something, and wanted our opinion on it. It had to do with the law of chastity, so I just explained it simply how the Lord sees it, and the importance of the commandment. They accepted it, but then said that the culture where I come from is much different than Africa, so things aren’t the same. (Which is kind of funny seeing America has some serious problems that way, Ha-ha) But it was really nice having an African companion that related to them, and was able to explain these things to them. We had another good lesson as well. With the mother of Rebecca, who is the mom in the family that we're hoping to baptize soon. She was visiting them, and asked Rebecca to come get us. That she wanted us to come talk to and bless her, but not to bring her into the church. When we got there you could see that she wasn’t doing well at all, and was so depressed you could see it physically. She took a while explaining some problems she is having, and how depressed and sad she is with life. We started teaching her about the atonement, and what it means that Christ not only suffered for our sins, but also all the pains and afflictions we will ever have, so that he could help us in our times of need. It was really cool teaching her about this, as you could see its something that she never really understood before. We explained as well that its coming closer to Christ that we can really have the peace we need, and in following our message, it’s the best way in coming closer to him. It went really well, and was a good way of starting the lessons with her, so we're hoping that will go well! So things have been pretty good here! We’ve been super busy, and just got everything done getting everything ready to make the new Porto Novo branch, which is cool as its only been a few months that missionaries are there. Its still been pretty cool as the rainy season is finishing up, so things are really nice right now. A highlight of the week came when we were visiting some Elders in Fidjrosse, and stopped at a member’s house, and they had honey. It was the craziest thing ever having honey for the first time in like 18 months! Things are going good, next week we have zone conferences, and the week after, the visit from Elder Curtis, so that will be really good.
We’ve been super busy, so we haven’t been able to get a ton done in the secteur, but its still been good, as we’ve found a couple new Amis, and have received a ton of contacts as well. So now we just need the time to go visit them! This past week though we have had the time to visit a few in actives though which has been good. Because there aren’t many members here in the secteur, there aren’t many people to visit those in actives. The visits though have really showed me that it doesn’t really take much to help them out, but really just visiting them, and helping them feel loved and that you we're thinking about them already does a ton. So it was nice getting the chance to visit some of them! One in particular has been baptized for a while, but refuses to get the Priesthood, as he’s worried if he does, his family we curse him with voodoo or something. So it’s been tough trying to get him to understand, but hopefully that will come along! That’s one of the tough things here is most people believe in that, so when you try to counsel them to avoid it and such, they just say that you don’t understand being from America. Which is why its really nice having an African as a companion who can back you up, and teach the truth. That comes in handy a lot for sure. For example this past week we got talking to a group of guys, and they told us they were having a little discussion about something, and wanted our opinion on it. It had to do with the law of chastity, so I just explained it simply how the Lord sees it, and the importance of the commandment. They accepted it, but then said that the culture where I come from is much different than Africa, so things aren’t the same. (Which is kind of funny seeing America has some serious problems that way, Ha-ha) But it was really nice having an African companion that related to them, and was able to explain these things to them. We had another good lesson as well. With the mother of Rebecca, who is the mom in the family that we're hoping to baptize soon. She was visiting them, and asked Rebecca to come get us. That she wanted us to come talk to and bless her, but not to bring her into the church. When we got there you could see that she wasn’t doing well at all, and was so depressed you could see it physically. She took a while explaining some problems she is having, and how depressed and sad she is with life. We started teaching her about the atonement, and what it means that Christ not only suffered for our sins, but also all the pains and afflictions we will ever have, so that he could help us in our times of need. It was really cool teaching her about this, as you could see its something that she never really understood before. We explained as well that its coming closer to Christ that we can really have the peace we need, and in following our message, it’s the best way in coming closer to him. It went really well, and was a good way of starting the lessons with her, so we're hoping that will go well! So things have been pretty good here! We’ve been super busy, and just got everything done getting everything ready to make the new Porto Novo branch, which is cool as its only been a few months that missionaries are there. Its still been pretty cool as the rainy season is finishing up, so things are really nice right now. A highlight of the week came when we were visiting some Elders in Fidjrosse, and stopped at a member’s house, and they had honey. It was the craziest thing ever having honey for the first time in like 18 months! Things are going good, next week we have zone conferences, and the week after, the visit from Elder Curtis, so that will be really good.
Things are all going really well here though! Thanks a ton for the love
and support!
Elder Oliverson
Elder Oliverson
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| Just flexin our muscles:) I've never been a big fan of the soccer jerseys they get us here, as they never have XL. |
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