General Conference finally got here.

Bonjour!                                                                                            05/05/2014

This past week has gone pretty well! We haven’t been able to get as much proselyting done as usual due to meetings, but its still been good. We had a good day of lessons the past Tuesday. And there was one that was really interesting. He was a recent convert that was baptized about a month ago. But his story is really cool. The missionaries found him on a morning where they were doing a finding activity. They ended up going house to house. They stopped at one and left a Restoration brochure. The guy looked at it, and was like, hey come on in I have something to show you! The missionaries went in, and on his wall was a framed painting, of the same image that is on the restoration brochure. No one really has any idea where he got that picture, or how, as it is a picture painted by Simon Dewey, or one of the other LDS artists. And the picture somehow ended up in the house of a person in Togo. Ha-ha, But anyways the guy thought it was pretty cool that they had that same picture on a brochure, and decided to follow the lessons, and in just a month or so was baptized with his whole family! I doubt that happened just by chance. That is one of the best things about this area, is all of the member families, and Ami families. There is something special, and a special spirit when you have a family together and helping them understand how they can use the gospel and how it can help them. It’s also really cool to see the difference between a family founded on the gospel, and the ones that aren’t.  At the same time though, as we are less in the city, you find many more people that don’t speak French, and I would say honestly about half of our Amis right now, don’t even speak French, so that’s difficult. Ha-ha, at the same time though they seem to be more humble even, and in turn more accepting. 
On Wednesday we had Zone leader council with President, which was awesome as well! Its nice having that time learning a lot from his wisdom. Along with that we had pizza after so I wasn’t complaining too bad! We had a good lesson from President on charity, and the importance of looking at the heart of people rather than their behavior. Along with that on Friday we had our last normal Zone Conference before President finishes his mission here. It was crazy to think that it will be his last. We will be having a goodbye conference though as well next month, which really will be the last! Along with that Elder Ritchie and my companion gave their last testimonies, as it was their last zone conferences. After that I gave the lesson for the zone, on planning and the importance of fixing goals. I gave a lesson on planning; using the example of the council that Moroni and Teancum did in Alma 52 figuring out how they would take over the city of Mulek. It was a good story though! Zone council was awesome though, that’s one of the best parts of zone leader is being close to President like that. The success in the zone has been going down a little, so my companion and me have been putting in a lot of work to get things going back up! The lesson went well though! 
Then on Saturday we were supposed to have our baptism for Marie, but found out the night before that on Sunday we would be watching general conference at church, as it has finally gotten here. So we had to push that till next week instead. It was really nice though finally getting to see conference! The only problem though was that most of our Amis that came don’t speak French, so as the person talking is a French speaker. They  understood nothing. Ha-ha, luckily though the bishop came and did a little summary in évé at the end. But yeah the work has been going along nice, and it’s a lot busier now it seems! My companion is the best, and we have an awesome time together, and the apartment is really nice too having Elder Potter, and Elder Mou-tham, one of the Tahitians there as well. Me and my comp are planning a fun zone activity next week as well as we found out that pigs aren’t that expensive in our secteur, and that our Tahitian elder knows how to prepare them. So were planning on taking the zone to the beach and eating the pig! And I get to be the one to stab it in the heart, so I’m pretty pumped about that! 

       It’s been good though! I love my companion, he’s towards the end of his mission so he’s getting a little tired, but he’s awesome. He reminds me a lot of Desvergez. The secteur is the best as well!! The only problem though is they will be bringing sisters into the secteur. Which means they will be moving the zone leaders into another secteur, so we'll have to see where they put us.

          I’m really excited to talk to you all though! Thanks for all of the love and support! I love and miss you all a ton!
                                                         Elder Oliverson

Soccer activity

Soccer activity

Leaving Be Kpota for Anfame!

Bonjour!                                                                                                                        04/28/2014

          Things have been really well this past week. Monday night we had a little party with the ward as kind of a goodbye FHE, and that was really fun! There was a ton to eat, and over all we had a really cool lesson from our Bishop, I’ll surely miss that Ward a lot. The lesson was on testimony, and afterwards he had everyone bare just a short testimony, and that was the best to have. One thing that hit me in particular that I liked a lot, was in the testimony meeting a common thing that a lot of the people said, was about how when they received the gospel, it was like they found that piece that was missing in their life. It reminded me of something I’ve heard our converts talk about before, but it made me think a lot about how that is with the gospel. I remember one of the times that Elder Vinson came, talking about how we all have already learned the gospel, but because of the veil, we have need to be reminded of these things, and of Gods love for us. It reminded me as well that really what we are doing is just reminding these people of these things they’ve known before.   Another testimony that hit me a lot, and really made me think a lot more, was from a member named Joel. He’s an incredible member, and has brought many others into the church, but he’s actually been a member for about 8 years now, which is one of the longest I know. But he bore a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon, and explained that every year since his baptism he has read the Book of Mormon, all the way through. And one of the years read it twice, so up to this day he has already read the Book of Mormon 9 times. It really made me realize how much more work I have to do, and how much of a help that book can be in our lives if we make the efforts to read it constantly. So if someone from Togo, that doesn’t have very much education has read the Book of Mormon through 9 times, it made me realize I have a lot more work to do. It was awesome though that night hearing all their testimonies, but also sad saying goodbye. The next few days we had some more dinners, which was nice as well, but towards the end I started getting a little sick of it. Ha-ha, but then on Thursday they took me over to Anfame for the transfer. And oh I love my companion! Elder Gnenenon is the best! He’s just a little shorter than me, but is only about 165 pounds so he’s seriously like a stick when you see him. It makes me feel pretty huge as well, even though that is no longer the case. On the bright-side of that, in Africa, you don’t put on fat, and you lose it all as well, so if you put in the efforts you can actually get pretty ripped. Not huge, but cut. Ha-ha, and it's a big self esteem booster now hearing from members that I look like a mannequin with how skinny I’m getting, so hey this isn’t too bad! 

But yeah the transfer went well, and I’ve loved the new secteur! There are so many families in the ward, and they’re the best to work with as well. When people have a family in the gospel, it seems to help them be more stable in the church. Along with that we have a lot of great Amis as well that are getting ready soon for baptism. We had a really cool lesson as well this last week with one of them named Frido. It was actually just the second lesson with him as well. He was a contact from a member, so that has been a lot of help. But when we started talking about baptism with him, we asked him if he believed that the Book of Mormon was true, and if what we have taught him was true. He bore a very strong testimony as well about how good he has felt after praying about these things. And in particular he explained that he had a dream before he ever met with us that led him to meet with us. He said in the dream he was walking in the forest, and fell into a dark hole. When things were getting bad in that hole, he looked up and there was that member that he was friends with, and he put his hand out and lifted him back up into the light. He figured that was a sign he needed to talk to this friend, and ask him about his church. It was one of the coolest stories ever, and was awesome to see how he came into contact with the gospel. This next week we have Zone leader council, and then Zone conference as well, so things will be pretty busy. Along with that I am giving the lesson in Zone conference so I'll be even more busy getting that ready as well, but it will be fun for sure! Things are going really well here though, not much new with the Ebola, but hopefully it doesn’t get too bad. But other than that, life is much more busier now, but I’m loving it for sure, and it's the best with my companion. He’s seriously one of the nicest people ever, and we get along perfect! Like I said as well the Ward is great, and the members bring their friends to us asking for us to teach them, so the work is going awesome as well.

I love and miss you all a ton, and I hope things are going great there!

Elder Oliverson

Leaving Be Kpota

Last FHE at the home of one of the members.

My new companion on the left!

The school in BeKpota that the member started up.

Me and Elder Derou

Transfer

Bonjour!                                                                                                                  04/21/2014

First off I don’t have a ton of time today as we had a big soccer activity for the Stake in Kegue today. So I will be short! This past week has been good though! Not too much new except for that I got the transfer call this past week, so I’ll be leaving Be Kpota! I will be going to be one of the Zone leaders now in Anfame. Luckily still in Togo! I will now be working with the other Zone leader Elder Gnenenon from Cote DIvoire. My fifth Ivorian:) Ha-ha. I’m really excited though, and I’ve heard he’s an awesome missionary, and that it’s a great secteur so I’m really looking forward to it. 

Things have gone pretty well in the work this past week, but not too much new. As the church is so new here, they’re still working on getting better at helping the recent converts, but its us that do most of the lessons with them. We have a lot right now, so a lot of our time has been with them, which has been good as well! Something I saw in particular was how amazing some of our recent converts are, but also how much Satan works against them right after their baptisms. It shows a lot though that he is worried about them being part of this great work, and doesn’t want them there. One in particular was Joseph, who we baptized a couple weeks ago. A few days after his baptism the manager of his company came to him, and presented a huge job offer, which would send him to live in Germany. The problem was that in accepting this offer, he would have to lower some of his standards he has as a member of the church. At first he had a hard time, as that’s a huge temptation, and its almost every persons dream here to go to Europe, or America, so this was definitely something that was tough, and I could understand why it was hard for him. I was really happy though to see that even though this offer looked so appealing, and it seemed so big and great, he chose to stay here in Togo, and keep doing what he is doing. I was super happy to see that, and its things like that that make me thankful to work here. 

Our other Amis are progressing pretty well also, which is nice, but I’ll be sad leaving them for sure. This is no doubt one of my favorite secteurs, and I'll miss it a lot. Luckily though, I’m not too far as I’m still in Lome! Things are going well in Togo as well. We all got a mass message this past week that there is a Ebola outbreak here right now, that just came over from Ghana. I’m not quite sure what that is, but I’m pretty sure its not the best. So we'll see what happens with that! Along with that, this past week I saw my first case of elephantitis. That disease where the leg, or whichever part infected swells to the point where it really does look like an elephant. It was seriously very sad to see, and I can’t even imagine how it would be to live with that. It reaffirmed the fact though that it is not at all easy living here, yet seeing how great and happy the people are, helps you understand the more important things in life. 

Also this past week I was able to download conference and have been listening to that so that’s been nice! It’s awesome to have that help from our Prophet and Apostles so often. I haven’t listened to all of them, but one of my favorite talks was the one by Elder Anderson about spiritual whirlwinds, and the fact that even though the world is getting worse, the Lord doesn’t lower his standards. I’m excited for sure to see the rest of conference soon! But yeah, things are going well with the work, and I’m excited to be going to Anfame for sure. As I said time is short as the Ward is having a little goodbye party, so that will be fun! Also tomorrow were eating one of our member’s cats for a little goodbye party as well:). That could be a highlight for next week so I’m hoping that all goes over well, but yeah, things are all going very well in Africa, and the work is surely going forward!

 Sorry my time is short today! Thank you for everything, and for all of the love and support! I love and miss you all a ton!

Elder Oliverson

All of the ward missionaries from Be Kpota!

Me with Bishopric of Be Kpota, saying goodbye

A newborn baby! It's been awhile since I've seen one of these.

Preach my Gospel

Bonjour!                                                                                                                04/14/2014

This past week has been pretty good again. The work is still coming along very well also! We had our baptism for Eric this past week, which was awesome to see. Along with that we had two kids in the Ward that turned 8 and were able to be baptized as well, so that was awesome to see! The baptism went well, and the following day we had Ward Conference. The problem was when we woke up it was pouring. And when it’s pouring here, its really pouring. Like the roads are flooded. So we were worried people would even be at church, because when it rains here like everyone shuts down for the day. So we were a little down, worried about our three people needing to be confirmed, and the Ward Conference. Surprisingly we showed up and it was already packed there at the ward building!! It was the best to see the people here and how devoted they are to getting to sacrament meeting, and renewing their covenants. I was happy to see that and it was even a big example to me as well. With all of the baptisms we still have very solid Amis coming along. One of my favorite has been the young man named Aquete, he’s been an ami for a while, its the same one that had the struggles accepting our message due to his family being voodoo, and also his poverty, when everyone here is already in poverty. Along with that though he’s probably the most humble person I’ve met here, and with that, there are many humble people, so that shows how humble he really is. He’s really strengthened my testimony though in that the Lord doesn’t judge us by our intelligence, or what we have, but the gospel really is available to everyone. He bore us his testimony about how he knows our message is true, and has even had dreams helping him see that the story of Joseph Smith is true. I can see this is true as well in the sacrifices he makes to come to church and follow us even with how difficult it is for him. With how things are looking right now, he’s hoping to be baptized very soon, so that will be exciting for sure! 

The work is coming along well, and I still love the work here. Usually I would hate the 45-minute walk to our secteur. But it makes it worth it with the people we have over there. The Ward runs pretty well also. I was impressed this past week when we were visiting a member family, and I was talking with their 11 year old about what he learned in Primary this past week. He started off and recounted the whole story of Abraham and how he had difficulty having kids, all the way down to how the 12 tribes came about. Without any flaws... Ha-ha I was stunned seriously! I didn’t really get that story till I was in seminary in high school. And even then its awesome to see how even though the church is so new, things are already starting to get going. Things are going well with my companion. He pointed something out to me that I liked a lot in our companionship study. He had been reading in Preach my Gospel and came across a part that talked about how the only thing that can unite people in the world, from all different cultures, and ways, is the gospel. And we started looking at how yeah; we are very different, in just about every way. Ha-ha, but we have the same testimony, and the same beliefs in the gospel... it made me think a lot about that how I’ve had the chance to work with Malagash, French, Congolese, Ivoirians, and Togolese, and even Nigerians, and we all have this bond between us being the Gospel. It’s really awesome to see how the gospel has filled the world. 

All in all things are going pretty well. I read a little in my journal last week, from around the start of my mission. I laughed a little seeing how bad I stressed with the language and all of the other things at the time. But also saw how much I’ve come along and how my faith has grown from each day on the mission, it’s been the best!

          Things are going really well though! I love and miss you all a ton and hope things are going well there! Thanks for everything!

Elder Oliverson

New Companion

Bonjour!                                                                                                                         04/07/2014

Things are going pretty well here in Africa. It has been really nice this past week working with Elder Derou, we teach really well together, so things have been going good! We’ve got some really good Amis right now, and the best members as well! I love visiting with the members here, and our recent converts. For example this past week we were out in the morning, after our 45-minute walk to the secteur. And we had an Ami that wasn’t at his house, there were clouds coming in and you could see that it was about to come down hard. I was trying to get another lesson in before it started but it came fast. Ha-ha, luckily as there are so many members around they’ll pull you in from the rain, so we took cover with a member who has a boutique named Benedicte, and had a really good lesson with her. She’s struggling a little bit with a wayward child, so we tried to share some scriptures to help. One in particular I love for that is the story of Enos. You see that his dad was Jacob, and his grandfather was Lehi, so I’m sure he was well raised in the church, yet he still sinned, and had sins that needed repenting, years after he had left them. And you see that it was because he remembered the words of his father, and others that helped him get back on track by repentance. So the point we tried to get out, is just keep doing the best you can, and love them, and even if the results don’t come right away, the efforts aren’t useless. 

The work is still going forward though, we had our baptism for Joseph this past week, and it went really well. This next week we have our baptism for our ami, Erik. He’s seriously been the best, he was a contact from a member, and is one of the most sincere and humble people I have found here. He is one of the first people at church every week, and is already very devoted. He wanted to be baptized the first week we started the lessons, but we had to finish the lessons with him, and he had to come to church first. But he is no doubt someone who was very ready for the gospel. There is definitely no lack of people to teach in this secteur as we have many good Amis, and a ton of recent converts, so the work is going forward! 

I like my new companion as well so that’s been good, he has one of the closest to American sense of humor, so we get along really well, that’s been pretty nice! Also this past week I started taking parasite pills again.... and as I think I have lost all of the weight I’m going to, I got my pants made smaller so they actually fit me now:) so I’m no longer a 36, but now a 34, and along with that my legs are like half there size. Ha-ha but its been nice having pants that fit again! The people here like me skinny though, and say that I was fat before, so I guess it’s a self esteem booster;) they say I have the body of Ronaldo, so I was pretty happy. Then I remembered he was a soccer player, and was a little offended... it will come back quickly though when I get back to America!! We got a lot of new missionaries this past week so that was really fun as well, as we had a little soccer and basketball activity today. Basketball was really fun, but then someone invited that member that is on the national team, and he’s like 7 foot something, and then it wasn’t very fun anymore as I was the one that had to guard him. All in all it was still a good time though! Ha-ha, but yeah things are going really well in Africa, the work is going along well, and the people are great here!!

                     I love and miss you all a ton! Thanks a ton for all of the support!

Elder Oliverson

Baptism of Joseph

Rainy Season!

Bonjour!                                                                                                                               03/31/2014

This past week has gone by pretty well you could say! A couple big changes happened, so that mixed stuff up again! First off on Monday we got the transfer call, which sent Elder Sahue over to Benin. Then I found out I have Elder Derou coming to work with me in Be Kpota! So I was pretty happy because of the fact I get to stay here in Be Kpota! They didn’t do the change till Saturday, so we worked the week till then. I’m working with my 4th Ivorian now so hey hey hey! That’s pretty cool. I love my companion though, he’s pretty nice, and we get along well, we get a lot of work done as well so things are going good! 

I organized a little missionary prep class for our ward. This past week we had 11 people there, so I was super happy with how it went! From what I remember that’s even more than how many that I would see for a ward back home! It was super fun though, and one of the things I like a lot with working with them, is they all are converts of 2 years and less, so they are fresh off from the missionaries, and understand missionary work pretty well already, and the conversion process, which helps them out a lot. Right now two of them have put their papers in, and more to come. It's the best seeing that, and I can't even imagine how strong the church will be when all these young men start getting back, it will be awesome to watch! So that’s been pretty good with the mission prep!

I did a split with Elder Florion the Tahitian this past week, so that was pretty fun as well. He’s only been out a month now, but he already seems like an experienced missionary! We have some good Tahitian Elders here and have a few more on their way so that will be nice to see. On Friday night the assistants brought the missionaries from Benin over from the transfer, and ended up staying with us so that was pretty fun as well. Its nice with Elder Ritchie being assistant as that way I see him much more often! We then had a little soccer missionary work activity Saturday morning, as now that we have a Stake, they have given each ward the assignment to have a missionary work activity every two weeks, its been somewhat successful, but hands down the soccer worked the best! Ha-ha, surprise surprise. Still not much of a fan of it though. The work is still pretty consistent though so that is nice!   

We have Joseph one of our Amis getting baptized this next week, and Eric getting baptized the week after, so those two will help out the Ward a lot for sure. I love the Ward here, and they do an awesome job at really getting our converts each a call right when they get in, which helps a lot, and along with that you see really how the Ward is blessed by the many different and unique talents of each member. 

But yeah, so the whole weight loss thing has gotten to a whole other level now. So usually when I show people here that family picture I have in my scriptures, they never know I’m actually in it, because well, in the picture I was a 50 pound bigger Elder Oliverson, so I’ve gotten pretty used to pointing myself out, and they laugh and think its pretty crazy. But the toughest to take was this past week when I showed our recent convert Ayele, and had her point me out, and she pointed at Tanner, and was convinced it was me. So all those times I said Tanner would probably be bigger than me when I get back, they might not be so crazy. 

I got a call from Desvergez this past week from Benin, it was the first time we’ve talked since I was back in Benin. And man oh man I miss him so bad! Ha-ha it was the best talking to him again and it was nice remembering those days we worked together. I got a call from Elder Sahue as well when he got too Benin, so it was cool talking to him as well! Today for a zone activity we went to a little Togo National Museum, which just turned out being a slave museum. It was still pretty cool though, and was once again really fun being with all the missionaries! Along with that, we ran into a white guy, who without doubt by looking at him you could see he was American. Along with that, he had a stone face, with a huge build, and was packing heat. So sure enough as it’s the first American I’ve seen in I don’t know how long we had to talk to him! So we did, and found out he works for the Department of State and is an army officer from Mesa Arizona, and is here right now, doing something that he couldn’t really tell us, but also training a narcotics force, and apparently is going all over West Africa doing the same thing, it was pretty cool running into him as well! 

The rainy season is surely getting closer. This past week we were in our last rendezvous, when it started raining, we already had to be leaving, but waited a couple minutes for it to stop... but it didn’t, so we realized the more we waited the more flooding there would be, so we just started running, the 45 minutes way home, and I mean full out running, and at first we were trying to avoid the huge puddles, but half way realized, the roads were completely flooded, so just ended up running the rest of the way in about 5 inches of water... completely soaked, then got back and our house was flooded, but it was kind of nice at the same time, as it was so cool! But it got to the point where it was a little too cold... and now I understand what people were talking about a year ago, when they would always complain about how cold it was after the rain, while it was hotter than ever more me, but now being acclimated, I need a jacket or something. But it will be nice for sure! 

Thanks for all of the love and support as always! I love and miss you all a ton! Thanks a ton for the pictures as well, they’re the best!

Elder Oliverson

The rainy season is getting close :)

Book of Mormon

Bonjour!                                                                                                                         03/24/2014

This past week has been pretty good. Again not a ton new but its been good! We had zone meeting on Tuesday and I got to give the lesson there, so that went pretty well. It took up the entire morning so we weren’t able to get too much done that day. On Thursday I did a split with Elder Rybin so my companion went with Elder Ravelejoana. It was a pretty good day for sure! We both learned a lot from each other, like usual on splits, and it was nice changing things up a bit. Along with that at the end of the day we got to go out to Baguida to do some baptismal interviews, and man, that place... It’s a little section just right out of Lome, and it’s where most of the white Europeans live, and it’s incredible there! We did the interviews at the rented out church building there, and they had grass!! Which was like the most mind blowing thing ever it was so nice! So that was pretty fun. We also had our baptism this week for Ayele, who is the sister of Espoir, who was baptized earlier this month, so that was really nice! She was the last one in the family that hadn’t been baptized, and the hardest for sure. But she’s there now, so I’m really happy for that family for sure now. 

I’ve loved it here, and I’m glad things are still going as well as they are. The members are still great at usual. I will really miss them when I leave! We’ve also found some pretty good new Amis. One that was really cool, was one day as Koko, our new convert was walking down the road, he was walking with his Book of Mormon, and someone who had been talking to the missionaries before, but moved, stopped him and mentioned they had known the missionaries before, and wanted us to come keep teach them. So Koko has helped us get restarted with this person, so I’m hoping that will go well! I thought that wasn’t just by chance that he had walked past this person carrying his Book of Mormon. So that was pretty cool!

 We have a lot of great Amis right now, and most of them are keeping their commitments so they are doing pretty well. That is one of the things I love most with commitments, is yes, we ask if people are reading the Book of Mormon, or keeping the word of wisdom, to see if they are. But really you can see a big difference already when they are doing these things. So really you can usually see whether or not they are keeping the commitments, in how they’re progressing without even asking, but its good to ask to help them be accountable. 

 We had another random rainstorm that hit us last night. I don’t know why but I swear they always come in the night. Either way I had to sleep with mist hitting me in the face. Ha-ha, because with the windows here, they are like glass shutters. So there is no way of completely sealing them off, because it is so hot, there is no way you could do that. So yeah water always finds its way into the house, but it was cool, so that made it not too bad! Ha-ha, but yeah, all is going pretty well here!

            Thanks a ton for the letter and also for the prayers and support! The prayers are much needed right now so thank you for those! I hope all goes well for you this next week, I love and miss you all a ton!!

Elder Oliverson