The Temple

Bonjour! 08/16/2014

This past week has gone by pretty well! Sunday was good with church, and we had a little meeting again with the district about the activity were hoping to do in not too long. Then President also was wanting to start up a Mission Prep class for the soon to be missionaries in the district, and wanted help in getting the word out and that ready to go. We were hoping at first to hopefully have 10 people there. The missionaries helped a lot in getting the word out, we ended up having over 20 people there for the first mission prep class we had at the bureau! It was pretty awesome seeing all of them, and no doubt will be a big boost to the church here when they start getting more experience and returned missionaries.

We’ve still been super busy this past week, but have still been able to get a lot more work done in the secteur. Its good to still see the progress of our Amis as well. We’re still getting everything ready for the marriage of Rebecca and her husband so if that could only come faster. Along with that they’re having us do more focus on not having just baptism as the goal, but also the Temple, and that people stay active to be able to go to the Temple as well one day. We’ve had some pretty cool lessons with that also. It's the best teaching about the Temple to them, as yes there is a lot of stuff they don’t know, but at the same time the whole point of it just makes sense, and even though its hard for them to understand sometimes the blessings that await them there, they still get super excited and pray to be able to go there one day. I never really realized how strange that was being just a couple minutes away from the temple, so any time there was time I could just stop by, and if that one was closed there was another about ten minutes away. Here when the people learn about the Temple, they will do all they can for the chance to go there even just once. There is no doubt a special spirit that comes when teaching about the Temple with the Amis and new converts. It made me think a lot about the Temple and the things that I have done there, and was a good reminder to have as its been a about a year and a half since I’ve been to the Temple last, so it was nice to remember what a special place it is.

We have another Ami named Carmel who has just recently started progressing really good as well. Its a little surprising as he is much richer and well to do, and even has family living in France and is hoping to go there soon, yet he is still very humble and has just absorbed the Gospel and is even giving us contacts. It’s clear that he was well prepared to receive us.

On Wednesday we spent most of the day helping the sisters with a wedding. They ended up needing two cars going up, so Rybin and me got to go as we were the designated drivers:) It was a lot of fun, and cool to see as there were two couples getting married, to get ready for their baptisms. It was also cool to see the support of the church there. Its huge getting couples and families like that, as it is very strengthening for the church. It was a great time, but took up most the day.

Today we had the annual Mormon Helping Hands activity, which was pretty fun! Last years was great, as was this years. This year they actually had 4 different ones throughout the city, as there would have been too many people and to help with the transport, and sure enough there were a lot of people, and not enough tools! It was good though and we got done really fast. It was to repair the grounds at a hospital in Cotonou, as when it rains the dirt grounds get terrible, and there are huge wholes everywhere, so we flattened the whole area out. It was a good time as well! Then we came back and spent like 2 hours cleaning our apartment, which is like the first time its really been cleaned since I’ve been here, since we're like never there. So that was pretty crazy stuff! Things have continued to be busy for us, but it’s been really good this past week with the work! President is going to Togo this next week again, and the week after Elder Curtis will be getting here, so were getting ready for all of that. All is well here though; the Ebola talk has died down a lot as they have found finally that it actually isn’t really here so that’s a good thing.

All is well here though and the work is going great! I’ll keep you guys in my prayers and I hope this week goes great! Thanks for all the love and support! Love you guys.

Elder Oliverson