Promptings of the Spirit

Bonjour, 10/18/2014

This past week has been pretty good, and I did end up finding my planner as well, so that was a plus. There have been some really cool experiences as well, and some new ones. One of those being that I got to give the first baby blessing I ever have, so that was pretty cool! The only problem was that like I’ve said before the Africans have like 5 names each. So when doing the blessing I hope I was able to get them all right, if not I’m not sure how that works, but all in all it went well.

This past week as well, President left to Ghana for the Mission President seminar so he has been gone the entire week. Last week before leaving, he had gotten done with all his interviews he did for the missionaries, and we weren’t really planning on getting interviewed, as he said we're always with him, and everything he needs to tell us he already does. But anyways he decided to interview us late Saturday night so that was really nice to get the chance to talk to him like that. He really cares about the missionaries and the needs of each one, and how each one can improve as well, so that was really nice. We talked a lot about following promptings of the Spirit when they come, as often it is difficult for many reasons. He compared it to sports, like hockey for example, as he’s Canadian. And said that many hockey players back in the day would stand in front of a clothes dryer a lot of the day just hitting pucks in the door, as it would create that muscle memory, it reminded me of how I’ve learned that with other sports. Where we do stuff over and over again to make it so that when we have to do it in a game we don’t even think about it, but it just happens. He said its a lot the same with the spirit as we need to make that big effort to be spontaneous enough to always act on the promptings, even if were not completely sure, and in doing so it will get to the point where we just naturally act off of them, a lot like the example of President Monson, so that was something that really helped me out.

Monday as well was an interesting day as we got a call from a member to come to the hospital to bless their sister. When we got there, it was there we found that she wasn’t actually physically sick, but mentally rather. As the week before her father passed away in front of her, it was so traumatizing it had become a huge problem, and no one knew what to do as she was out of control. My comp and me didn’t really know what to do either as we had no experience with it. We ended talking to her for a bit, and then gave her a blessing of comfort. The spirit was really strong there no doubt in helping us know what to do. Afterwards we spent some more time with her, and talked some about the Plan of Salvation, and read some scriptures. You could see she started calming down much more, and became much more open with us. By the time we left as well, it was a much different situation that when we got there, and it was really cool to see. The family said that she hadn’t talked to anyone since it happened, so just the fact that she opened up to us was a miracle. It made me think a lot too about what a blessing it is to have the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation already, as when those times come there is much more understanding.

Our FHE went really well also Monday night, as we invited a member named Brother Kazotti from Fidjrosse to come with us. He is no doubt one of the best members I have met the entire mission. But it was really good for the family we visited, as Kazotti before he became member, had two wives, had been through many churches, and had even been hardcore into voodoo as well. So he basically had every bad problem there is here, before being baptized. So as he is a member, he has been greatly blessing financially, and is now sealed with his wife and kids in the Temple, and is an incredible member. We basically just brought him to the FHE and let him loose. It was a very spiritual night, and was really good for the parents of the family as they have many problems keeping them from baptism, so his testimony was something powerful for them.

The work is still going well for us, as the few Amis we do have are coming along little by little. This past week my comp and me have done more tracting than we ever have, but it’s been really good. My comp is very very good at following the impressions from the spirit, and also with talking with everyone about the gospel, so its pretty effective for us. Our sectuer is a little difficult at the same time as it is very Muslim, The other day was a little interesting, as we prayed before going out to tract that we'd find people to teach. When going around the first 4 people we stopped to talk to were Muslim. Usually we don’t really talk to them, as they are nice people, but aren’t supposed to talk with them. It was interesting though as all four that we talked with ended up being pretty interested, and wanted us to come back for another rendezvous. We're hoping that things will progress well with them, as it is a little tougher and a little different of a situation than who we usually teach.

This past week we found another really awesome Ami as well, as we stopped to say hi to an Ami, and also started talking to his friend, as we were talking to his friend, we found that he was an extremely rich manager that worked at the port. We then came to find out that he lives directly behind the President of Benin as well, who actually isn’t far from us. He asked us to stop by again as he wanted to know more. When we did stop by, it was pretty cool, as he literally lived next to the President. He had to warn the guards in advance that we'd be coming so they would let us pass. The entire road is filled with secret service, and trucks with 50 cal machine guns on the back. When we finally got into his home we could easily see in to the Presidents home as well just by looking out his back window. This guy is no doubt as well the richest person I have taught my entire mission, which was interesting, and at first a little daunting. We ended up having an amazing lesson though, where the spirit was strong, and he as well has become much more interested, and is now following the teachings. It is kind of funny as well as the night we left his house, the secret service surveilled us for the next 24 hours. As that is the protocol just to make sure who we were and what we were doing there really.

All is going pretty well here though, we had a pretty crazy experience this past week, but I’ll probably be waiting till after the mission to tell you about that one. But things are going great here; the next transfer is just a week away now so we’ve been getting ready for that. It’s still pretty hot, and I guess it will keep getting hotter.

Something cool this past week was that the Stake in Togo called their first Patriarch finally. The only problem though was that he hadn’t even gotten his Patriarchal blessing yet. Ha-ha but I’m sure they got that taken care of. All is going well here though and I hope all continues to go great there as well.

Thanks for all the love and support though and the letter, I love and miss you all a ton!

Elder Oliverson