Bonjour!!                                                                                    

Another good past week and a tiring one for sure!! Things

have been going really well the past week work wise. Elder Barton just

got in, so the last American to come from the Provo MTC, because the

rest will be going to the Ghana now! But yeah the past week has been

really great!! Things are finally coming together now in the branch

really well, and we actually got two of the young men called as branch

missionaries so that’ll be way fun to work with them and help them get

ready for their own missions as well! This past week we made a lot of

progress with one of our ami's named Hughe. He is a student here from

Cote D'ivoire.. and we’ve had trouble getting to talk to him because of

his uncle, who is strongly against the church and such, and thinks we,

are racist and that whole thing. Finally though we have been able to

get working with him and its been awesome for sure! He loves our

message and has been soaking it all up, especially with the Joseph

Smith story and such, he’s been reading the Book of Mormon as well, and

we can already see a lot of progress with him that way. He is getting

baptized the 17 of the next month as well so that will be great! We

have had a great time with the new Font families that we’ve found, and

they as well are actually getting baptized the 17th as well so that

should be really fun as well! It was the best seeing them come in

church this past Sunday. All 7 of the kids took up about half of our

chapel, but hey its a good thing! As of right now we have 14

baptismal dates set for August with many more that should be coming!

So it’s really fun to see the work start picking up! The members have

been a huge help though, and were seeing a lot of improvement that

way, for example we had a rendezvouz with an ami after church, who

wasn’t able to go to church because she got some malaria, while we were

in the lesson she got a call from the relief society president in our

branch asking what was up and if she needed anything. So the branch

is doing awesome here! English class has been a pretty good time as

well, and that is for sure starting to help the missionary efforts a

lot because everyone here wants to learn English. Everyone. We’ve had

some problems with church cleaning so my comp and me have started

going each week to get that going, which also has helped a ton because

the members love it when we come! While cleaning the church we went

into the garage, only to find one of the missions extra trucks... this

whole time the brand new truck has been there, but apparently is only

for emergencies and such! I was kind of bummed Ill be honest! But hey

maybe one day! We’ve been able to start teaching more Muslims again,

even though their month isn’t over yet, which is interesting, but some

of them are actually progressing really well! Its interesting teaching

the word of wisdom and chastity with them because a lot of teachings

in the Koran are similar to an extent, so they don’t have too much of a

problem with those areas. But yeah the work is going awesome! One of

my favorite lessons this last week was our first lesson with the wife

of Ambroise, the one business man who hasn’t been able to be baptized

yet because they’re still waiting on the papers for their marriage. She

has been coming to church with him and the family each week, yet we

just finally had our first lesson with her because she lives way far

away. But yeah we had our first lesson, it went awesome, she

understood really well, and then she started talking about Ambroise..

She was talking about how before he wasn’t the best guy, he would be at

the bar each week with the guys, or was traveling for work. He never

saw the family, and she said that she hasn’t seen him, or her, happy in

years.. She said though she started to notice an enormous change in

him, and he started talking about how he was meeting with the

missionaries and how happy he was.. She said he left part of his job,

and has been home every night since then.. The part that about made me

die was when she said that now, every morning, and night he insists on

family study of the Book of Mormon, and prayer, and they’ve even

started up Family home evening.. She said no doubt they are the

happiest they have ever been, and they finally have their family

together again, and every day its the best when he gets back from

work. She explained that she though absolutely nothing could change

her husband, but if there was something that could, it would have to

be an absolute miracle. Man how great that was to see how much the

gospel really does bless individuals, but especially families!! That

was probably the happiest part of the week hearing that! Since then we

have been able to start teaching their five daughters as well, and

were hoping to be able to see them all be baptized together in the

next couple weeks! No doubt that will be a beautiful family in the

church!! The gospel no doubt is the only thing that could possibly

change someone’s life, and family like that. It surely strengthened my

testimony as well on how important the gospel is in the family, and

those things like prayer and scripture study! Another great part of

the week was at church.. Were so used to having about 3 or 4 amis at

church each Sunday, and that is the usual, maybe a couple more but not

often..  That’s one of the biggest problems we have is with getting

people to church.. We’ve found some awesome ami's lately, but still I

was blown away when we had 17 amis at church this past week!! It was

awesome to see the church filled completely, no doubt it could be a

huge blessing for the branch as well, and I wouldn’t be surprised to

see not far off the branch getting split into two really. But yeah the

ami's are all doing great and the work is awesome right now!! Its the

best still hearing people that sometimes have a hard time

understanding explaining how they just know things are true, and how

the spirit feels, and explain how things just feel right.. it no doubt

shows the power of the spirit in conversion and has been amazing to

watch! Also how the Lord helps us find those honest in heart and ready

to hear the gospel.. so often we find people, begin teaching and they

don’t progress, but we find they have friends or family who have just

soaked in our message. But yeah Africa is still great! Not a ton new!

It rained this week, like usual.. so we’ve been finding a lot more

lizards in our place, I hope they’re doing good work with the bugs, so

that’s nice! Desvergez is still the best ever!! He loves missionary

work and is no doubt the most zealous, fun loving missionary I’ve known

yet, so its been the absolute best! You definitely have to be fun

loving with these people, and they love you! We have a new p-day

activity, and that is finding different random basketball courts

around Gbegamey and asking people to play us in pick up games.. they

love it, (because its two yovo's).. till we start to play.. I will be

honest right now when I say that we one 32 straight games this

morning, 2 on 5.. On top of that though we got 5 new contacts from it,

so its definitely a good activity for the work as well! ha-ha but no

doubt its been 8 months since Desvergez has played but hes still got

it in him! Ha-ha, so things are going great here in Gbegamey! I hope

all is great back in the U.S.A! I love and miss you all!

Elder Oliverson

Kids here are the best!!

Bonjour! 

Another great and crazy week! Me and Elder Desvergez have been working insanely hard, but its been the best at the same time!! This past week has consisted of a lot of finding mostly, we've been working to get a lot more stuff set up in the branch, like the English class, a young single adults group, more branch organisation, and helping get mission prep going. Its been great though!! All our amis are doing great as well! One of those two business men, Ambroise is waiting on his baptism, because of a problem getting their marriage worked out.. They're pretty complicated to get done here, and along with everything you have to do, you have to get permission from both parents. Here parents are living in France, and so because of that for some reason they are having a lot of problems getting things done there, hes been awesome though, in still doing all he can to get ready for his baptism!! Overall this past week we fixed 8 new baptismal dates as well so its been the best for sure! We've also finally been able to get the parental permission for Merveille a young man in the branch, who hasn't missed a week of church in a year and a half, is already trying to get ready to serve a mission, but still hasn't been able to get baptized, because of the parental permission required.. So it was awesome to finally get that!! Still we've been doing a lot more in the branch and that so its been really fun, and having more members help in the work so its been great!! We actually have been able to start meeting with the former president of the branch in gbegamey, and who is actually the one who started up the branch, he has since, for about the past 9 months or so been completely inactive, and has gone off the path a little bit.. I had heard different things that he had gotten into some pretty rough stuff, but not much more.. But one day this past week we had a missed rendez-vous, in a parcel that was just next to his. I have never seen or met hi

m in my life, and really wasn't sure why we hadn't visited him before or why I haven't heard much about him.. But Elder Desvergez, decided to just stop by and say hey and introduce ourselves.. We did so and he ended up having us come in. In that hour or so he explained to us a little of what had happened and how things were going and why he isn't in the church anymore. We also found out that his brother who lived in the building next door had passed away a while ago, and he was trying to sell the place, he showed us though and showed what the problem was, and when we walked in, it was crazy!! Ive never in my life seen a place more dirty in every way possible.. There were dead mice everywhere and such, and it was pretty insane for sure! We asked if we could help by chance, and he refused, we took that and gave a little spiritual thought, and went on our way.. In our planning though we were trying to figure out what we could do to help him. We ended up deciding to get all our young men, and youth in general to come over with us one day to go clean up that house for him, do a little service and see if that could help this guy. So we ended up organizing it, the only part I wasn't too fond of was that we had to do it at 5 in the morning.. because its Muslim month long holiday and that, they do more praying and such, so they do all of the washing their hands and feet and such, and so we had to do this service at a time before they used all of the water for the day. Soon we got to go over there, and man it definitely wasn't easy at all!! Ill never complain about hard work again that's for sure, but seeing this guy and how stunned and happy he was made it completely worth it!! Since then we have been able to have a couple lessons and meetings with him and such, and no doubt you can already see him getting his life back together, and actually this past Sunday he came back to church for the first time in months!! No doubt making that all worth it! It definitely strengthened my testimony on service, and how we can do missionary work, and be representatives of Christ in many different ways! So that was definitely one of the happiest parts of this past week! But yeah the work is great!! Insanely tough for sure but its been great! Its been especially tough with the Muslim holiday and such, but were definitely seeing the blessings for the hard work for sure!! The branch is doing great though, and its been the best getting more involved with them and helping out there.. I got to kick it in the primary this Sunday again because President Weed and his wife were visiting and he needed me to translate for her in the primary..(which I have to give it to her, it would be insanely hard to be here that long and not know French!) So that was fun to be there with them again! Ive got to refresh on my primary songs for sure though, its been a while! It was cool to because the presidents son and his wife were visiting here as well, so they got to come to the branch and visit. Talking to them after it reminded me how awesome these people really are! I felt bad because I'm getting so used to being here and the people that I forget how blessed and happy they really are and what a blessing it is to be with them!! The presidents daughter said something to that really hit me, and that was that she saw that the gospel is the same, and is still true in every different language and culture.. and how true that is! Yes you walk into the branch, and its so different than anything you'd ever find anywhere else, but the Gospel is still the same, as is the spirit! So that was another great reminder for me as well! But yeah things are all great here! The work is definitely picking up for sure as well so its been great! Things are a lot different for sure as well being with another Yovo, and a lot more crazy.. Haha we have a lot more run-ins with "prophets" and some of the stranger people as well.. but its been fine! And along with that as well, there is a man claiming to be Jesus in Nigeria, and has already gotten up to about 50 million followers.. so that's been a big one here as well.. but just goes to prove the prophecies of in the last days there will be plenty of false prophets and such! But hey the work is still progressing here amazingly with all of that! I hope all is great back in America! I love and miss you all!

Elder Oliverson

Larry's family that I had FHE with last week! 

The Gata

Bonjour!! A pretty great past week here in Benin!! Big news is the new companion Elder Desvergez!! First off just because of the shock in that he's a French (so hes a yovo as well) and it would be the first time that's happened and the only companionship like this here, so we were both surprised, its been the best though! One of the most french people you ll ever meet but hes the best no doubt! Hes our only french missionary from Paris, because he was a big basketball player over in France! He has been on the mission for 7 months now, and was in Togo for those past months and is now here.. But things have been the best for sure!! No doubt Ive never worked harder in my life but we have a party for sure.. But hes no doubt one of the most zealous missionaries ever so its the best to work together! Hes a stellar missionary though for sure and works really smart as well! The office elders warned me to get ready to pack my bags with Book of Mormons because hes been known for going through our boxes of Book of Mormon's like crazy.. on top of that he eats like crazy, which is a big positive when ami's put food in front of us..(not that I don't love it or anything) which is also probably the reason hes 110 kilos as well.. not sure in pounds? I went from being the big guy to meeting my match though with a French who is much bigger, so walking down the roads in Gbegamey its hard to hide Haha but its the best and we work insanely hard and things have really been picking up and doing insanely well here in Gbegamey! Two downsides though are the fact that all prices are about 4 times the original now because apparently two white people are insanely rich?.. and also that for some reason two big white missionaries attract more of the stranger people..(voodoo and such) not sure why but that's for sure kept things interesting.. haha Not a ton new ami wise, we've been spending most of our time finding lately and building up there, but still have been able to be teaching 7 lessons a day, so we have a lot of ami's progressing well, and should be having a lot more soon! All of our new members like Gilbert and Ambroise, the business men.. are incredibly strong members, and its the best to see how fast they're growing in the church no doubt! Desvergez is a smart missionary for sure, and has taught me a lot though already, and work is going to start picking up no doubt!! We had an awesome experience yesterday in a quick visit with a family in the branch.. This family is one of the strongest families in the church Ive ever seen, and have only been in the church for 6 months, but working to prepare financially and spiritually to get ready for a trip to Ghana to go through the temple.. so its been awesome.. but we were planning on visiting them after church, we went over and were having a great little visit, and answered a few questions, and it was about time to leave because of another rendez-vous, so we just planned on wrapping up, but a feeling came that I should just share one more quick scripture, and I opened up and went to Nephi chapter 18 and just the verses 1-4, at the time I wasn't sure why but I just had a strong feeling I should, so I was just planning on reading together and talking about how its always best to do things in the manner that the Lord has shown rather than the manner of man and the world.. and after reading without explaining Larry broke down in tears.. first time I had ever seen an African cry, so that was pretty strange, and he went on to explain that this scripture was exactly an answer that he was searching for in his life with work and family and such.. as they have had serious struggles and things were tight and had no clue what to do.. the spirit was incredibly strong being with that family for this awesome spiritual experience and showing how real the spirit really is and such.. He went and marked on the wall the day and the time of this experience and it wasn't hard at all to see how incredibly grateful he and his whole family was.. no doubt one I wont forget and am so thankful for the spirit that was there!! Its incredibly how much the spirit is always involved, and the goal is really just to act on it.. I remember Elder Bednar saying in the MTC not to be a missionary who for ever thought questions if its the spirit or not, but that when you're worthy and doing whats right, 9 times out of ten those promptings are the spirit. Desvergez has taught me a ton there too, and choosing what to do and where to go, all of even the smallest thoughts, he goes for it, and it often ends up being incredible! We've also had some cool experiences in teaching the people more out in the boonie's type areas, where there is no education and most speak only Font and seeing how the message really is for everyone, and everyone can understand the gospel if the spirit is there.. its awesome being with the humble people hearing them try to explain how the spirit feels, or why they stopped us and the impression they had.. the spirit definitely works both ways! But yeah the work is going great!! It is going to start to go crazy as well, so its really exciting!! But yeah the week has been good, and things are starting to pick up for sure.. no Revanons this week, and I doubt we'll have to worry about them trying to hit us with sticks anymore Haha, and on a side note I got a alligator back pack... yes, an alligator.. so for everyone that thinks a kangaroo scripture case is cool.. try an alligator one.. Haha only in Africa!! the problem is how bad it smells.. considering its an alligator, so I'm really hoping that goes away soon! But yeah things are great here in Africa, its getting hotter again and hasn't rained in a few weeks, and people are getting really worried because this is the least rain they've had in decades, and apparently there is a drastic drought here as well, so they said we should be seeing big effects from that as well in a couple months with the harvest and such! But its all good! I hope all is great back in the U.S! Love and miss you all!

Elder Oliverson

Some of my boys in the Branch in Gbegamey!

Elder Kabedeh, Elder Soanantenaina & Me.

This is Etoile rouge behind me.. a big monument here in Gbegamey.

This was our wonderful 4th of July celebration.. roasting hot dogs over our burner!!

Bonjour! A pretty good week! No moto crashes or angry mobs and such so that is always nice! This past week has been pretty peaceful and nice, not too much that is new. I have finally found out its totally cool to hold hands with other guys and no one will judge. I have definitely been judging this whole time as I have seen just about all of the guys here holding hands with each other. Turns out that here that means you're just friends and that's that! I found that out this week after we went on a split with a member and when we crossed the road he grabbed my hand and I about had one, I looked to my comp stunned at what just happened. Then luckily I found out that really that is not at all the way it is in America, but instead its totally cool to be holding hands with your guy friends... I'm still not a fan though.. Haha and I just realized its my birthday my week too when I was reading some emails so that was to know! Haha I'm trying to keep it on the down low though because I don't know what kind of crazy celebrations they do here for that.. but this week was good in the work! We got to do our monthly split with the zone leaders, so Elder Ritchie went with my comp. and I got to work that day with Elder Kabedeh! No doubt one of the nicest Africans you'll meet, he cooked for me, and even sang me to sleep that night! Whats better than that? On top of that he has their fridge stashed with beesap and we went crazy on that! (its one of the best drinks Ive had no doubt, but its the juice from habiscus flower) Haha, But no doubt one of the best days I have had yet for sure! He is from Liberia, meaning that he speaks English... But not really, You have to understand that the English spoken in Liberia or Nigeria is nowhere near the English that we speak.. Luckily the French has come a long way, and honestly it was much easier to understand his French than it was his English! He is an awesome missionary and no doubt one of the nicest, hardest working Africans I have met yet! We had a great time and got a lot of work done so that day was awesome. Our amis are all doing great though as well! Gilbert and Ambrose are still working on getting their marriages planned so they'll be ready to be baptised next week or so! They're the best though, and are working insanely hard to keep getting ready for their baptism, they have studied the Book of Mormon a ton in this time and are already gaining a great knowledge and testimony of the scriptures and doctrine! They invited some of their business friends to talk with us, they bore some amazing testimonies in those lessons as well and are definitely already doing some great missionary work themselves! Our ami Chrystel is doing great also and is absolutely golden as well, and she also has made some big sacrifices too for baptism! Sure enough shes already giving us a ton of contacts as well as she owns a coiffure business so she has the hookups! So no doubt many more blessings have already started coming from those amis that we have getting baptised! The rest are doing pretty great as well! Its been tough but great for sure! We had a great zone conference this week as well on the importance of using the Book of Mormon, and helping people have a true testimony of it, as if they have that, everything can follow, and how true that is! The Book of Mormon no doubt is true, and contains an unbelievable spirit, and I for sure have a testimony that using that is our best way to get strong lasting converts! Because really our message is pretty strange with a young boy and angels appearing and such, but the proof is in the Book of Mormon and there is a promise that whoever reads it WILL know it is true. So as a missionary I have been able to see how awesome it is to have that proof! Also we found a new Muslim family as well who is taking our message great! They have a cousin who is a member in Burkina Faso and they told these people to find the missionaries.. The people said they have been looking for a few years now, they have found the Jehovah Witness missionaries, (yes there are a ton of those in Cotonou as well) but they said that it just didn't seem right with them.. So this past week as we were on our way to a lesson after having a appointment fall through, we had a lady come up running from behind us yelling for us to come back. She said she knew it was us when she saw us walking down the road, as she led us back to their parcel we ended up having a great lesson with this new family and they as well are all progressing great! So we for sure have had some great experiences this past week and found some new investigators! Its definitely great as well finally having the language because I can finally do much more to help the people and do more in the lessons! These people are so ready though no doubt, and it isn't hard to see how the Lord has prepared them! Nothing else too crazy though this past week! Elder Christensen and I got to go teach in the Primary this past Sunday and man was that a great one!! I miss those days for sure! The only problem was I have all of those primary songs memorized in English not in French so I just had to act like I was singing! The kids had trouble though concentrating on the lesson having two Yovos in the room, but hey it was a great time for sure! We also got to teach the branch the importance of FHE, so that was fun! Our branch is definitely growing and building up great so that is good to see! The French is finally getting there so that is great as well! I'm at the point where I can converse and teach pretty well, but I'm not completely fluent yet! Finally Ive been able to start up teaching some of the branch members English once a week, like the Elders have before, and all I can say is I am so glad I know English already because it is not an easy language to learn! Haha Its going great though! This past week were interviews with President Weed so that was great as well to get to spend time and talk with him there! We have a lot of missionaries going home this month and over 20 Congolese missionaries leaving in September so he explained there will be a lot of changing and things going on in the mission in the next months, also with wanting to open up new areas in Benin like the capital Porto Novo, so that should all be pretty fun! Things are great here though and the work is going awesome! Hey I'm finally acclimating too to Africa and honestly I don't even sleep with the fan on anymore because I get cold with it on at night, Haha, so that's good finally! I hope things are all great back in America! Don't enjoy it too much! I love and miss you all! Have a great 4th of July as well!
Elder Oliverson

A wedding we had in our branch!! Really awesome for sure! Along with the A.Ps and Elder Ringle and his comp!

 Elder Poll killed the picture.

Bonjour! Another good week in Africa! The work is still great and not a ton of new stuff though! This next week coming us is when we will have our baptisms this month so I'm really looking forward to that! All of our investigators are doing great as well! Our four business men are still golden as ever and are preparing a ton for their baptisms. They have all had pretty rough pasts and have had to make some huge changes in their habits and such to be baptised, so its amazing to see that this conversion and desire to follow Christ, is helping them change completely around! In fact two of them Ambrose and Gilbert are getting married as part of the prep for the baptism, so we have been getting that all organized, which is definitely not easy but way worth it! We might have to push their baptisms back a week if we cant have the marriage done before, but that's not too bad.. Its definitely a big boost for the starting the new branches here to have new potential priesthood holders join the church! So all round this is a huge blessing for them and to the church and awesome to watch! Another ami Crystelle who is getting baptized this week is also doing great! She has had some trouble lately leaving her past church and all of the dancing and singing and such to join ours, but hey she decided to make the sacrifice so shes doing great! Haha a lot of people are a little disappointed to find we don't have all the dancing and singing in church, but they feel the spirit when  they come and realize why so that's always good! Our branch is also doing very well here in Gbegamey! With our new leaders and having a lot of new converts coming in its really fun to see how fast it is progressing! I was way excited this week as we had a couple new missionary aged young men join the church, and are already some amazing members, I love working with them and hearing how bad they want to serve missions and how they're already getting ready! To be honest was a little ashamed with myself to see how much better they're preparing and working to get ready than I was! But its definitely a huge thing to have people here from Benin already starting to get ready to serve their own missions! So the work is great! The problem still isn't in finding people, because everyone here wants to here the message, its just finding the most ready people! Its the best though as we are always teaching and always busy! The food is getting better, its still hot though, I'm pretty sure that one wont change! We did have a huge miracle no doubt this past week though! Definitely one I wont forget either as well.. This past Tuesday my companion and I and the A.P's got to go to the marriage of one of the new members here in our branch. The wedding all went great and we were just leaving with the A.P's to go eat afterwards, as we were driving back through Mentontin to go eat, things were all good and we were just driving on a busy road as usual, all of the sudden though a moto came up from behind going way to fast (not a surprise here) he tried to get around us on the side but we had another moto on the side of us, so as he went to pass, he slammed on his breaks and slipped, then slamming into the side of our truck and going under it.. No doubt right then I knew for sure it wasn't good, and when I looked back to just see him back on the ground, Ill be honest to say I though for sure he was gone, Elder Poll though said it was the moto we had run over so I knew we were good there.. The problem was though that there was an angry crowd there thinking that we had ran into that guy, and here with there not being much justice, we had to keep going, a little farther down though, three more motos came from behind and blocked us off from passing, along with that they had one of the police guys with them, I could already tell things weren't good, so Elder Owusu got outside being African, so he was fine doing so, and was working to explain what happened as the angry group were trying to get us arrested so they could get money or something out of us, the cops were ordering the other A.P out of the car as well, but before he got out he was able to get a call off to the Commissioner of police in Cotonou, and the assistant of him, that's where the miracle came in, that just a couple months ago he had baptized both the assistant to the commissioner, and commissioner of police here, and they both happened to be close by in Menontin... definitely a huge blessing! So after that he got out to deal with the crowd, and luckily the police were keeping things under control in a way from getting worse, but things were definitely leaning on the side of the angry group,  things just kept getting worse with that situation.. and just at the right time when the police were starting to get heated, the commissioner and mayor showed up to work the whole situation out for us.. We finally after an hour or two had gotten the whole situation straightened out and were back off on our way... definitely a quiet ride back till Elder Poll said... ¨Well I think its safe to say were blessed!!¨ and that's very true! Haha definitely hoping that one doesn't happen again though! Other than that the week has been good! I finally had the pàte rouge which is much better than just the regular fufu, because it has flavor in it so that was pretty nice! I'm also still finding a ton more fruit and better foods, so were doing good in that area! We've had water also for the past two days so were doing fine there as well! Haha this work is the definitely the best though, and even when things get super tough just with being in Africa, the people are what make it great! They have no doubt taught me a ton in how to have real happiness! And its even better because we have the chance to even increase on that happiness with giving them the gospel! I love and miss you all and hope you re all enjoying America! Have a great next week!

These are the two business men we have been teaching Ambrose and Gilbert!! 

Elder Mundu & me. He is leaving in a week. He's Congolese and actually is really educated!! He wants to go to BYU after the mission. 

Bonjour! Another great week with some more random adventures! We found a new source for coconut milk, and mango's so were doing good and I'm still alive! I found a scale in a little store here, and either it doesn't work right (which I wouldn't be surprised) or Ive already lost 15 pounds, either could be true haha, but I'm right with the average for the rest of the missionaries if the second is true! I learned how to make fufu too finally, because we ran out of rice this week so I didn't really have a choice, haha But our ami's are all progressing very well and the work is going awesome! The branch is doing well, and the new leaders we got put in are doing awesome, and were starting to get more and more work going with them so that's really fun to work with them! Also things with those four men are going amazing! We were able to have a few lessons with them this past week, and they all four committed to be baptized,. along with their families, the 29th of this month! They're continuing to come to church with their whole families and are some golden investigators! In our lesson this past week on Thursday, we had a cool experience with one those men, named Ambrosse. We were walking up to his place for the lesson and for some reason he was there waiting for us with his Book of Mormon, before we could say anything he told us he had finished the Book of Mormon, and that he knew it was true, that he knew Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that our church is the true church, then asked what he needed to do to be baptized!? He has since given up drinking and smoking, and other bad habits already in his preparation to be baptized, and really it hasn't been extremely difficult for him because of his strong testimony he already has of the truthfulness of our message.He bore a full powerful testimony about the truthfulness of our message, and this is coming from one of our new ami's! He went on to explain, without us asking, why he stopped us that day with the rain. He said that Thursday was their usual day where they sit out in the afternoon and drink and have a good time with the boys. That specific day though for some reason, their usual guy who brings the drinks didn't show up and they're still not sure why. They were disappointed and were getting ready to leave when it started to rain, because of the rain they decided to stay on the patio a little longer till it finished. There was no one out because of the storm, until he saw two guys with white shirts walking down the road, he said that he had an impression like hes never had to invite us in out of the rain, and the rest of the men there said the same thing. Putting his side of the story of what happened that day with our side of the story shows that no doubt the Lords hand was involved, and the timing and the placement of us and them was too perfect to be just by chance! Because for us we were just trying to doing some tracking, and had the feeling to go give a little visit to a member on a road we don't usually travel, the member wasn't there that day, so we ended up being stranded on that road, we continued on to walk back down that road and that's when the men stopped us and invited us in. From that prompting to us to go down that road, and for the rain that day, and the prompting they had to invite us in, no doubt that was a miracle! They have since read and gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon and are all planning to get baptized this month. They have already started to center their families on the gospel, and make the changes necessary, meaning a couple of them are getting married this next week in preparation for baptism, which is huge here with how expensive that is to get married. It is amazing to see the happiness they have found, and they always tell us how happy they are and how thankful they are, and they as well recognize that what happened that day wasn't just by chance. That has been one of the most coolest experiences Ive had yet, and it is continuing to get better as they are continuing to prepare for baptism. They will no doubt as well be a huge blessing to the church here as well! That experience has also really strengthen my testimony on the converting power of the BofM no doubt. And that book no doubt contains real power as it has caused those men and many others to make huge changes in there lives, so that they can become members of the church! Its also awesome to see the blessings they are already having and how the gospel is changing their lives for the better! Another one of our ami's that we found through a member is also being baptized on the 29th! She is doing great with her preparation as well, and has made some big sacrifices in giving up her old life, and old ways, even giving up old friends so she can follow the right! They're strengthening my testimony a ton in watching them change and their happiness grow! So the work is awesome! We have found many new ami's and members and have had some amazing lessons this past week, sorry I feel bad because I really cant include all of the miracles and blessings of the past week because there are really plenty each day, but I hope those couple are good! Haha on another note I did get my first taste of how bad the voodoo really is here, I finally realized that the reason that people from certain tribes have slits cut in their faces isn't to look cool (which to be honest it does look really cool) but it has to do with the voodoo, and too look like a snake or something? So that was crazy to finally find out what that meant! And I had my first glimpse of a Revanon, and hopefully my last!! They're voodoo "ghosts", which I don't know if that's true unless ghosts have legs.. because I could see their legs under their red robes....that roam streets outside the main city at night, they go down the streets with red robes and black voodoo masks doing tribal dances, and if you don't bow and respect them they beat you with sticks... Haha and rumor has it they have knives too, and for white people that don't respect the voodoo they'll do a little more than beat you with sticks!? But this week I caught a first glimpse of some coming from a distance, luckily we happened to be by a home of a member and they hurried us in and we watched is they did their dance down the road.. I'm pretty sure one of them saw me through the window so I didn't dare take a picture, and I'm sure that was a good idea! Haha so yeah, Ive realized just how prevalent that stuff really is here, as it has been the pastime of this area, but that just makes it even better to watch the church sprout up and grow and watch the light the gospel brings here! All people are already starting to know about the Mormons, and understanding that the white tall people are the Mormon's! But the church is definitely growing here and its the best to see and have a part in! The work is great though as always, but its no doubt the Lords work, and nothing is going to stop it from going forward! The people are the best, and the gospel is already starting to bless their lives unbelievably! We have some awesome members here in Gbegamey! Africa is great, hot and wet and more and more toads and lizards as always, with the toads being about as big as a little dog, Haha but like I said I found a cheap source of coconut and mango so that's a plus to the rainy season! A member is preparing jungle rat for us this week, so we'll see how that should be exciting, this is the first invitation I questioned a little, but this invitation doesn't come around much so I jumped on it! Haha I hope all is good though in America! I love and miss you all! 

Elder Oliverson

The Zone with Elder Dickson. 

Was able to go into the City. 

Bonjour! Another good week! I'm finally starting to see a lot more improvement in the language which is way nice! I have been able to have pretty solid conversations with people which is good to finally see! I'm even able to bargain with people finally, which is necessary here being white.. and even got a pair of sandals down from 8000 francs to 2000....(which is what they were originally) so I was feeling pretty good about myself! I got a little to confident though when I was talking with one of our ami's this past week, and we were talking about her kids, and apparently she asked me if I had any kids, and I thought she said something completely different so I said of course! She got super excited, and I was really confused, then only to find out she wanted her kids to marry my kids one day. Luckily we got that one cleared up though! Haha Ive had a lot of problem with getting proposed to, but now they're trying to set their kids up with my kids (which I don't have..) didn't see that one coming.. but hey its all good! haha still super hot and and eating fufu every day so that's good! I'm feeling a lot more at home here though now, and am pretty used to all of the craziness of Africa! Ill be honest I sometimes forget why everyone stares at me and the kids think I'm a monster, then I remember I'm white.. I don't see that changing any time soon though so Ive gotta get used to that! The work is going great though! The baptism this past week was great and no doubt the best feeling! It was really cool to see one of our ami's Marlene go up after the baptism and bear her testimony! I have no doubt she will be a strong member in this branch! Our ami's are progressing amazing, and we've made a lot of progress with them so that has been great. The four business men that we found the last week in the rain, have continued to accept our message and they are doing great! They have been coming to church, and are starting to bring their families as well, and are really understanding and applying our message as well! When you can show them how the gospel will bless their families it definitely sparks their interest a ton! So it was a really great blessing to find them! As it is very difficult to find a solid family with parents and children. They have committed to baptism later this month so that is really exciting to see how the Lord prepared them for our message! Definitely a great blessing for the branch as well to hopefully have 4 more solid new families! Another ami who we found through a recent convert as well is committed to baptism and she is amazing as well! It is just her with her two kids, but they are strong and their testimonies are growing a ton! Shes probably one of the nicest people Ive ever met as well.. for example every time we have a lesson with her, she tells us that because we are always giving her spiritual nourishment, she wants to give us nourishment, so she demands to make us a huge meal every time! We try to explain that she cant keep doing that, but she INSISTS, so I just go with it.. but hey I'm not complaining.. I also had my first lesson with a Muslim family here which was cool as well! Usually we don't teach with them and a lot of the time they want nothing with us, but this family wanted us to come so we did, and it was an amazing lesson! It was also way cool to pray together with them for really the first time in their life and helping them understand who their Heavenly Father is and such. I'm hoping they will continue to come along as well! Our branch is growing and doing well too! We had branch conference this past Sunday, and one of the new golden converts Larry who is from Ghana (so he speaks English) got put in as 2nd counselor in the presidency so that was awesome to see! Also I had another big shocker at church when another American showed up.. The first American non missionary Ive seen since Ive been here! So good to talk to him Ill be honest haha, but apparently he works with the U.S. Embassy here, and is in this branch area, also he said he learned french here in Benin, so there is hope! The work is great though overall! Elder Langouet the other Yovo in our secteur is being transferred to open up a new area, so Ill miss him! He helped me a ton with my french so that will be missed for sure! Things are great here though! And really we have a ton of little miracles each day, so we are very blessed.. for example this past Tuesday our little propane tank ran out so we couldn't cook any food.. so me and my comp went out to fill it up, only to find out the closest place to do so was over an hour walk away.. and carrying the big propane tanks.. and it was the middle of the day so it was barely physically possible for us to do that haha, but we went along and after about ten steps a random guy pulled up in a jeep and asked how preaching the gospel is going, and told us he appreciated what we were doing and offered to give us a ride... never would anyone usually do that for us!? So even though it was something random and small it was a huge blessing for us as missionaries!! Hope all is good back in the USA though! And you're eating good food and stuff... I didn't have anything too crazy this past week, but we are definitely finding more and more fruit especially because its mango season so that's the best! No doubt a lot better than in America, even the Bananas are better here!?  Love and miss you all! Good luck with everything this next week!

-Elder Oliverson

Marlen, my first Baptism!

Elder Soanantenaina, and the member from the muslim family who helped us find her!

Another great week! This one was a pretty exciting one too! The work was great, and it just continues to get better and better each day. The language is coming much better now, and is now doubt like our mission president explained, like being in a pressure cooker.. Being with only french speakers 24/7 and rarely getting the opportunity to speak to an English speaker is insanely tough, but I can see that I learn much much faster so what a blessing that is! Its still hot as ever but it did cool down to about 88 this week so I felt blessed there! I'm getting much more used to that though! I'm getting much more African in general id say too so hey that's not too bad! a little skinnier and darker every day, so hopefully one day I wont have to be the "Yovo"!! I hoping! I got a haircut today from my coiffure, which I'm becoming a regular at... because he has no clue what do do with white person hair I get the sweet lined up job, and hey that helps me fit in more too! Sorry I forgot to report on the cat, the cat was actually not too bad.. It was just like another meat and really wasn't too crazy Ill be honest! I have had some other pretty interesting things this past week that I had no clue, and really they were actually pretty good! The foods that I have learned that are the hardest to keep down are the weird combinations they make up here.. Like potatoes and milk? Or corn mixed with coconut?.. But hey its all good and I do my best to eat it with a smile because they watch you closely haha. I got the chance to split with another Yovo "Elder Langouet" from France, so how crazy that was to see two Yovo's at the same time here in Africa! I'm used to standing out insane but when two white people are together it was double the craziness! We also attracted some of the stranger people here for some reason.. For example on our way home we ran into a "wizard" or at least I think that is what he was.. He had a wand and had a couple screws loose for sure, but he was trying to talk to us in Fant, which we obviously don't speak, and then got frustrated and started trying to cast spells on us and started to freak us out a little bit, he then started pulling some weird wizard stuff out of his bag, and that's when we started to try to get away, as we did he ended up following, so it turned real fast into a foot race, and he no doubt wasn't giving up! We continued towards our place, and for some reason there was a little military blockade.(or in other words three random soldiers with machine guns in the road) which I'm not sure why they were there still?. Luckily this scared our wizard friend so we lost him, but then ran into the problem with the blockade, after trying to get past, I was pretty sure they were going to take advantage of the situation of having two white people and get money before we could get past. It started to get pretty sketchy for a while, but for some reason I didn't really get worried and felt pretty safe! I showed my passport as asked and we continued to talk, then one of them saw our name tag and the name Jesus Christ caught all their interest, slowly the conversation started to lead more and more into the gospel and we ended up giving them a couple brochures about the Restoration and inviting them to come to church with us this next Sunday, then we had some friendly handshakes and off we went on our way! No doubt I felt very blessed in that situation and knew that the Lord was looking out for us missionaries! Our ami's are definitely progressing very well too! We have some amazing investigators who have shared some amazing stories about why they continued talking to us! One big blessing we received this week came while we were doing OVB or tracking.. We rarely do this and usually it is just once a week, because we are usually teaching all the day. But this day we were tracking through some streets and it was pouring rain, for some reason when it rains here everything shuts down, people this that because of the rain that they cant do anything, for they explain they cant talk with us because it is raining, a little confusing but that's the case. We were going about and for some reason weren't having many promptings on where we should go, we were wondering what was wrong but continued to go, we continued going straight till we got to the end of the road, and turned back around a little discouraged, then out of  no where a group of 5 men under a patio called us over to take cover from the rain. What a great chance this was for us! We started off with a little small talk, then began sharing our message, the men were unbelievable prepared for our message asking amazing questions for example if Christ was baptized by immersion why was I baptized with the sprinkling of water? Really who asks that question, they were all very prepared for our message of the restoration and after teaching about the Book of Mormon they all asked for the books, and of course we gave them! Its not every day you have people begging you for the Book of Mormon here! But he gave them set up our next appointment and left! Sunday though all those men were at church with their Books of Mormon, and were just as happy as could be! After having the book for just 3 days one of them was already half way through Alma! This no doubt is huge here to have five men all of which have families who are progressing with our message and amazing for us to see how the Lord has prepared them! Another awesome chance we had this week was the our little visit with Elder Dickson, just being in his presence no doubt you knew he was called of the Lord! I as way excited for the visit and it was the best, I did find out after though that Elder Uchdorf was supposed to accompany him this visit... and after hearing that was a little disappointed Ill be honest! Haha but hey it was still an unbelievable experience to meet with him!! The spirit was so unbelievably strong just being around him so that was great! He really stressed that we need to focus more now on strengthening the foundation that we have set up here and fortifying the priesthood, because the growth is so rapid, it is hard for the organization and the church in general to keep up. So working more with the priesthood and establishing that and working with the members has been a big focus for us this past while. These people are the best though no doubt, and when I say they're the happiest they really are!! When they receive the truth its amazing to see how much they cherish it! They have taught me a ton in that area no doubt! So overall things in Africa are great! And the Lords work is going along! I also got a little humbled this week talking to Elder Gray who is in Cococoji, the one area farthest outside of Cotonou, and finding out he has been without water for the past 24 days and has been pulling from the well which is a ways away, haha after complaining about my every other week without water Ive definitely become much more thankful in that area! Hope all is well in the U.S of A, Love and miss you all! Elder Oliverson

Guard Monkey(Baboon)

I didn't dare get any closer to that monkey.. It was a fiesty one for sure!  

A member invited me to come eat! Honestly I have no clue what that is?????

Not your average house dog.. ha-ha Hyene!