"He feared God much more than man".

Bonjour,                                                                                                                    11/15/2014

         This past week has been pretty good! At the start of the week we got invited to a little party with a sister named Sandrine from Avotrou who left on her mission this past week. She was Elder Barton’s convert actually, so that was cool, but we helped her a lot with getting ready and getting everything she needed for the mission so that was good. President Morin has put a lot of focus on getting the future missionaries from Benin ready to go out, so that’s big as well, and also helps with retention. On Monday we didn’t get too much done as we had a 3 hour meeting with President:). We did get the new couple, which was pretty cool. The Dyson's who are actually from Bluffdale so not too far from us. Its interesting as he grew up in New Zealand so has a strong accent, and she has been a member for only 2 years. They’ll be a big help to the mission for sure. We also planned out a lot of what our theme will be for the Zone Conferences in a few weeks and about what we’re going to teach. The obedience in the mission is improving a lot so we're able to focus more on other things in working more effectively, which is nice.
        President left after that for Togo and spent a lot of the week there, so we had more time to work in our secteur which was nice again, and you can see that things are starting to progress more as well! We still have our Ami Carlos who has his baptismal date fixed, and we’ve started teaching the other members of his family. As they don’t speak French we’ve been bringing Rebecca with us in the lessons, she lived in Togo so she speaks Mina. It’s been super effective, and she is already a pro missionary! Its interesting to see that many recent converts teach better than I ever could have before the mission, as they are so fresh off the missionary lessons and such. We also have another family we have started teaching and its been going great there as well. The father is actually the chief of the quartier, so like the neighborhood leader I guess, so we’re hoping if things go well with him we’ll get a lot more contacts in the area as. The teaching has been going great with them though, and they were no doubt prepared in advance. After the first visit we left stuff to read, and by the next time they were wanting Book's of Mormon, showing that they had already read what we left them and understood. The spirit has been really strong with them, and we have a lot of hope things will continue with them.
        I was reminded of something that I learned in the MTC this past week about the spirit in teaching. As we've had some great lessons this past week and the spirit has been really strong, but I remember them telling us when Satan sees things are going well, or he is worried, he will do all he can. That distraction's will come to distract from the lesson. I’ve always-payed attention to that and have noticed that a lot, that often when things are going really well, a phone will ring or someone will randomly interrupt distracting us all. In one of our lessons with the family for example, there were a bunch of chickens around us, when out of nowhere a dog came running in the parcel and the chickens went nuts. There was a chase between the dogs and the chickens for about ten minutes till they got the dogs. It was tough but luckily it didn’t take too much away from the lesson, but it was just interesting to see how things work that way, but also what a powerful tool the spirit can be in lessons.                  
        We’ve had some really good lessons with Abel, who we are still trying to help accept the gospel. His problem is still that he has two wives and as a result, he can’t get baptized. He wants to be with one and has already decided he wants to marry her, but is worried that by leaving the other one many people will hate him, and that other wife will be lost without the support. It’s a tough situation. But my companion told a really cool story about someone he knew in Nigeria. It was a pastor that followed the missionary lessons, and fell in love with the church, he had the strongest desire to get baptized, but then the baptismal interviews came along. That’s when he mentioned that in his past he was a lawyer, and there was a case in particular where his client came to him and confessed that they had committed the particular crime. He used it for his advantage, and ended up winning the case, which put the other person in prison for four years, and kept his client out. He said that that had really been weighing on him since he started talking to the missionaries. They talked a lot about repentance, and restitution. He came to the realization that he had to confess to the family of that person, and as well to the court what really happened. In doing so he knew that it could ruin his life for a time, and as well could put him in prison, but he said his desire to be baptized was so strong he knew what he had to do. He went before the family, as well as the court and confessed what had happened, immediately afterwards they took him into custody and sentenced him to four years in prison. He told the missionaries to be ready in four years for when he would get out. I was blown away by the sacrifice he made to fully repent for his past sin, and how he feared God much more than man. He ended up going to prison, but what was a miracle was that after being in prison for about 6 months, a new governor in that state in Nigeria was elected, by being elected, he had the opportunity a little like in America, to look at a few questionable cases of people who have been put in prison, and let them free. He ended up being one of those people that was set free from prison after six months, and immediately searched out the missionaries. He ended up being baptized, and is now a leader in the church in Nigeria. The story really touched Abel, and we're hoping that he will do what he needs to do to be able to get his life back in order. It really reminded me that repentance is not always easy, but how necessary it is. I remember a talk mentioning that it’s like a problem in math with a lot of steps. Once you make a mistake its necessary to correct it right away, otherwise you can’t progress. If you try to keep going along, hoping to get the right answer, in the end it could be far from it, if you go back though right away and take care of it, its much much easier to continue. But yeah the work is going pretty well for us! On Friday President called and asked us to go visit a district for planning and also to do splits with them so we went to help them out. It went pretty well, and it was nice getting out and working like that again. Plus the secteur was full of Nigerians; honestly about 7 out of every 10 people we talked to are Nigerian. So there were a lot of lessons with us trying to understand each other’s English, which is sometimes a little miserable. But Nigerians are super spiritual people so it was cool as well! The past week was great though, and the time is still flying by! It keeps getting hotter and hotter but its more bearable now as well. I hope all goes great there this next week!

                                                  I love and miss you all a ton!

                                                              Elder Oliverson

That little farewell for Sandrine!

Elder Mou-tham, me and Elder Jorgensen

“Remember the teacher is always quiet during a test"

Bonjour,                                                                                                                   11/08/2014

      This past week has been nice to get back into our secteur and working there. We had a little missionary activity Monday morning, and threw the football a bit, which was nice as usual. Our meeting with President was a little longer than usual so we didn’t get out too much to teach on Monday. We were able to get out to teach lessons most of the other days, and to try to get things going with our Amis. We have to work a lot on keeping our Amis occupied and keeping their commitments even when we're not there, otherwise they don’t progress as much, and as there are some weeks we don’t get to see them, it makes a big difference. We have some pretty good Amis right now though. One in particular is named Carlos. He is really humble, but doesn’t speak much French, so we have to teach him with a member. He went to school before, but his dad thought he was worthless so he pulled him out, and ever since then he has had to work up till today, and now he is an adult and really doesn’t speak much French. Still though he has accepted the Gospel really well because of his humility, and you can see that it is something that is starting to bring much more joy in to his life now. This past week we were able to fix a baptismal date with him, so were hoping things will go well with getting him ready for that. 

We’ve also found some other new Amis this week that were hoping will start to progress more. Because we're often so busy we’ve had to work on just talking with everyone everywhere we go, because its hard to find time just for tracting, so whenever we go out we’ve had to keep our eyes open and looking for people. The work is going well though. 

Its crazy to see how fast the time is going now, and that there are only a couple transfers that I have left, but it’s pretty sad at the same time. Elder Rybin is doing a little better, they found a few kidney stones actually, and he only has less than a month left anyways, so hopefully it will get worked out. This past week as well, I did a little split as well with Elder Merrill, as there was a meeting at Gbedromede with some of the leaders, and President wanted our companions to go there, so we were able to go work together in the secteur. We visited our Ami Rebecca, who still to this day is waiting on the baptism even though she really wants it, because she is not married yet, and their papers are taking forever to get through. Along with that her husband really doesn’t want much to do with the gospel either anymore unfortunately. We decided to restart going over the lessons with her a bit, and focused a lot on the Plan of Salvation in particular. That is a lesson that is really fun to give, as it gives so much comfort and reassurance. It also helps us understand why we’re on the earth and why this time is so important. We talked a lot too about the trials in this life, and why they come and how we react. She was talking about how even when we do pray and keep the commandments in trials, why does no response come when we need it most. I remembered hearing once for an example that when you are going through something hard and wonder where God is, “Remember the teacher is always quiet during a test". Its interesting to think about it like that, I remember in the MTC one of the Seventies talking about sometimes in trials the Lord waits a bit to watch us, and see how we react to certain things, or what we do, because he has a lot of trust in us. In the end it was a really good lesson that we had with her, and one that helped her put things in perspective, and understand that there are many things in life we can control, but also many that we can’t, but that doesn't change the fact that we should do all we can to please the Lord. So the work is picking back up for us, which is nice and we're hoping it continues that way. 

Its been raining a ton lately here, which is a little weird for November, we’re still just waiting for it too start getting really hot again like it does this time of the year. Things are going pretty well in the mission also. A new couple is getting here today, so that will be a good help to the missionaries in Benin. Not too much else is new this week. Things are going great here though! The work is a lot of fun as usual, and teaching the gospel never gets old either. I hope all goes great back there this next week!

                   I love and miss you all a ton!

                                                                        Elder Oliverson

Lord lifted them back up

Bonjour!                                                                     11/01/2014

This past week has been one of the busiest of my mission, but it’s been good! I actually don’t have a ton of time today to write home as we just barely returned from Togo. Most of it started Monday morning as the week was pretty well planned out for us, as we had a lot going on with the transfer and the new missionaries and meetings and such. But Elder Rybin woke up sick Monday morning. So bad that he had to go see the doctor. He was describing a sharp pain in his lower back, and they think it is a kidney stone. So, that kept him out all this week! Because of that Monday we did all the transfers we could ourselves, along with picking up Elder Merrill who will replace Elder Rybin.Tuesday then came along, and we were trying to manage the missionaries leaving with those that were coming. Luckily those that were going home were a lot of help with that. It was really sad, and strange seeing them go home. I remember for example when Elder Layton went home and it was sad, but he was so much farther along on the mission than me it didn’t really hit home, but with this group it really did. 

We had an awesome group of new missionaries get here as well. The past few groups have been awesome for sure! The good part as well is President Morin stresses a lot the training. He puts a lot into who he chooses as trainers, and gives them a lot of training as well on training. It’s going really well also, as most missionaries when they get here are very zealous, so having a really good training helps them keep that. It was pretty busy picking them up at the airport and doing everything with them at the bureau, then afterwards taking them all to their apartments. Its not really that Cotonou is a huge city, but more that the traffic in the evenings is rough, so we ended up getting back really late that night from dropping everyone off. 

The next morning we came into the bureau early. Originally the plan was that Rybin takes a truck, and we take the other. But because he was down for the week, we had to take as many as we could that day. It was a long drive as well, but we got there, and came back the same day, and after dropping off the rest the missionaries in Benin came back to the bureau. We were taking a bit of a rest, when a soon to be missionary from the branch of Fidjrosse that was supposed to be leaving for the MTC the next day showed up. He explained that he was just told to show up at the bureau, the problem was he hadn’t even been set apart yet, nor received his temple recommend. The Branch President didn’t really know how the whole process went, and had no idea he was supposed to do it. So we had to run him back home to get interviewed by his President, then back to Presidents house to get interviewed by him. It was pretty hectic. It was awesome to see how excited he was to be starting his mission, and reminded me a lot of those last moments before becoming a missionary. By the time we got all his interviews done, President wanted to set him apart, and asked us to join him in the setting apart. It was a really cool, and spiritual experience as it was just us and President, his wife and the new missionary in his house. The spirit was really strong there, and it was a good reminder of the importance of a setting apart as a missionary. Afterwards we got to eat with President, as we happened to be there:). President then asked us to take him to our apartment then run him to the airport in the morning. That was another night with not much rest as we woke up pretty early to get him there. 

The next few days were spent doing a lot of catch-up, yet we were able to get some work done in the secteur, which was nice. There was also a really really sad experience this past week as well. One of the days we went out into our secteur we went to visit a member family that has been struggling a bit. We got there to find that the parents were gone as the mother was sick and her husband took her to the hospital. We spent some time with their kids before leaving. The next morning we got a call finding that the mother had just passed away that morning. It was pretty heartbreaking for all of us. Especially that the family is struggling a lot financially, and all of the kids are between the ages of 4 and 11. It was comforting though as well, to see the support from the branch that came to help them, as they needed it, we went as well to see what we could do to help. As the family already has a knowledge of the Plan of Salvation, that does help, but it was more of a situation where all you can do is comfort those who stand in need of comfort and try to give them some hope. We’ve been keeping them in our prayers lately a lot no doubt. 

As I said earlier we weren’t able to get around as much to our other Amis as we wanted, but we’re able to help a lot of our recent converts. One that really lifted our spirits was our recent convert Sarah, who just returned to school. She was explaining that now that she is a member, things have changed a lot with school and her social life, she is persecuted and made fun of every day now that she has joined our church, and it seems now that she has a rough time even going to school each day, at the same time it didn’t at all influence her enthusiasm in the gospel, which was really touching to see, and you could see that it actually strengthened her as a member, we tried to show her some other people that she is in the same company as with that persecution coming because she sticks to the truth, like Joseph Smith, Nephi, and especially Jesus Christ even, so the fact that people won't leave her alone actually isn’t a bad thing. 

We also visited one of my old converts from when I was back in Gbegamey at the start of my mission. He started out as an extremely zealous member, but with the time was hit by many trials, at first things were fine, but when the trials began to seem like they wouldn’t end, his faith really started to struggle a bit. We showed him an idea I saw in the Liahona a few months ago that was a good story about the brother of Jared, and how they crossed the ocean on the barges. It talks about how they were pushed by the wind towards their destination, the Promised Land. At times though the wind and waves would crash upon them and bury them deep in the ocean, but each time they prayed, the Lord lifted them back up to the surface for a time, but not completely out. We tried to show that the same wind that was pushing them towards the Promised Land was the same one that was also crashing upon them at times. We showed the comparison as well that in life many trials come on our journey to return to live with God, but something that could really help us is knowing that its these trials that can really help us advance in that direction, and progress towards our goal. In the end we showed that it took almost a year before they arrived from their journey, showing that sometimes our trials will last a bit long, but we just need to stick it out, as we don’t always have control over that. He understood really well, and we're praying that things will improve with him. Today again we went to Togo to finish up the rest of the transfer that we started earlier this week, so that took up most of our day, so by now were pretty exhausted again, but its all good! It will be nice this next week to get back into our secteur more, so hopefully we will be able to get things back up and going that way. All is well here though, and the work is going along! I hope all is well there, I love and miss you all a ton Elder Oliverson

Elder Fall & Me

This is Elder Nsengiyumva from the group of missionaries that just got here this last week. I wish I was training him:) he is our first missionary ever from little Burundi. I didn't even know the church was there, but I guess it is now. It was awesome meeting him as he is super quiet and little, but one of the most humble Elders I've met on my mission, so it will be fun to see how well he does!

If you’re on the right track, you’ll get ran over if you just sit there.

Bonjour,                                                                                                                    10/25/2014

            This past week has been a little busier than usual as President left for Togo again, so we’ve had a lot to do, and as a result weren’t able to get into our secteur as much as we wanted, but it was still pretty good. On Sunday we had a nice little dinner with Precious, one of my favorite Nigerians, which was really good. The only problem is for some reason that stuff is not the best for the stomach. Even Elder Izekor was feeling it, and he’s Nigerian so that’s saying something. 
           Monday was a lot of planning for the transfer next week, and the big group of missionaries we have coming in. We have 13 coming this month, and 15 in December. Which is huge for this mission, so that will be good. We will be pretty busy though next week because of it, with trips to Togo and such. 

         Things are going all right with the work, we had a few setbacks this week as Rebecca’s husband is going back to his old habits with drinking and going out with other women and such, so that was pretty rough for them. We spent a lot of the time teaching her in particular and trying to help her persevere and be patient. Its pretty amazing as well what a comforting power the scriptures can have on someone. For example we left her one-day with some scriptures in D&C and the next day came back finding her in a completely different mood. And she explained to us that after reading the passage it’s almost like she forgot about all the worries she had for a little bit. We’ve been continuing with teaching our new Muslim Amis that we found last week as well. I can’t say they are too devout as they are talking to us, but it’s been good. Its a lot different teaching them as you center a lot more on Jesus Christ and the Atonement, which is a lot of fun to teach in particular. 

          We worked a little more with the converts as well. The Gbegamey branch is having a little rough time as well right now, so it’s causing some problems for us, so we’ve been trying to help that way. Many members think that because they're already in the church, that’s what matters, and then become complacent which causes problems. I remember hearing that even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get ran over if you just sit there. Which kind of shows that even if we're on the right path, if were not always advancing, then were much more vulnerable. Were hoping things will get better there though. 

         I read a talk as well by Elder Callister that he gave in the MTC a few years back about becoming a consecrated missionary. It was incredible as well and very motivating for the last months of my mission. He talked mostly about the importance of giving up our own will to the Lords which is tough as each of us has a few things they have the hardest time giving up. But to be a consecrated missionary rather than just a good missionary it means giving up all those little weaknesses as well. He talked a lot as well about the difference about changing our nature and changing our behavior. If we want to really change and become a better person it comes in changing our nature. He gave the example of a missionary waking up on time, if for example a missionary starts waking up on time because his companion does. Its good for the moment, but it is something that won’t really last but can easily wear off. On the other hand if he wakes up on time for the Lord, and because it’s the Lords will for him, that is where he will really start to see the change for the better. It was a very motivating and inspired talk no doubt. 

        We are hoping to be able to get more into our secteur towards the end of the week, as we know we will be pretty busy towards the start. Things are going well though here. I found out that idea people have about mice and rats eating the bottoms of peoples feet when they sleep is true as well. This past week one of our Amis was telling me I had to wash my hands off better after we eat, then told me about how if you don’t wash your hands off very well, and there is still a scent or odor, mice will come and start biting and eating your fingers. And then what they do so you don’t wake up is they start blowing on the wound so it sooths it, then continue biting away. Ha-ha, it made me much more thankful about sleeping off the ground and in a net as I’ve never really had to worry about that at all. This past week as well we found another new contact from a member that lives directly in front of the President of Benin’s house. So now we have an Ami in front and directly behind his house now. You can tell the guards are starting to wonder what’s going on as they see us all the time now all around the house. I will say though it’s not quite the same security as the White House. Its just a normal house, surrounded by the military, and then every little bit you see a secret service guy in a suit. But there are many windows and a balcony so it’s pretty open actually. 

      Things are going well here though right now, I hope all goes great for you guys this next week. I love and miss you all a ton!

                                                            Elder Oliverson

Baptism we went and helped with at Porto Novo. As they don't have a church or font yet, we do it at a hotel pool.

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

Thought this was funny, it's a lottery and the winner gets a Visa to the U.S.

Book of Mormon

Bonjour!                                                                                                                           10/11/2014

Things have been pretty good this past week. Unfortunately I lost my planner, which is where I have everything I did this past week, and also the stuff I was going to write home, so I was a little frustrated about that, but its all good. Things are going good here though, and this past week has been super hot. We weren’t able to get a ton done last Monday, as we had our meeting with President which was good, where we talked a lot about the obedience of the mission, and also how we can get the missionaries to stop taking moto’s. Afterwards we had to go do a transfer of a few missionaries as well, as there were a couple who went home this week.
Things are good with the work also though. We had some really good lessons as well with Abel who is the husband of Rebecca as they’re waiting on their marriage. All the children are baptized, but the parent’s can't until that marriage we are waiting on, the mother has the strongest testimony ever but the father hardly has any. The problem is it almost seems like he doesn’t want to, so it’s hard to help someone become converted if they don’t want to. But things went well this week with him. For the past while we’ve been struggling with him, as he doesn’t really like talking to us, but last Monday we got a call from his wife saying he got in a pretty bad moto accident. The first thing that came to mine and my companions minds were what a opportunity this was for us, it kind of reminded me of Alma 32, where he was able to go finally preach the gospel to the people as they were more open to it after being humbled by their afflictions. Anyways, when we got to see him, his foot was injured pretty bad. I thought about going in with my awesome medical skills to help, as none of them really knew what they were doing, then got scared as it was pretty gross, so I just did what I could. Ha-ha, but it was good, as he was talking to us saying that really from what happened, he should be dead, which got him thinking a lot, and he was thinking about what would have happened if he died. That helped us get into teaching the Plan of Salvation in seeing that this life is when we are supposed to prepare to meet God. He understood that well, and could see that he was lucky to have this chance again. Now he’s at the point of seeing what he can do in preparing for what’s next, but there is still a little ways to go, but things are going much better there. With the family this past week we saw a lot we could work on as well. They are very solid with their FHE, with their family prayers and spend a lot of time together as well, yet they weren’t as happy as they could be and were still having a lot of problems. I had the thought to wonder how their Book of Mormon reading was going. When we looked into it we saw that they hardly read as a family, if at all. So we’ve been putting in a lot of focus in that area, and it’s kind of shown us the necessity of reading as a family each day, and keeping that in the center. As the Book of Mormon is kind of a guide, when people aren't reading it daily, they are missing out on many blessings, which could be their's. I remember Elder Bednar talking about the importance of it, and in keeping that as a habit. He talked about how they always strived to do it, even when their kids weren’t completely focused, and didn’t want to do it, and he said that he can't remember just one experience in particular that was an incredible spiritual experience, but rather all of them put together were what gave the great results. He compared it to a painting of a wheat field in that if you look close and see just one brush stroke, its not that amazing, but when you step back and look at it all it makes an amazing picture. I remember it as the same way, as when we were younger I was often tired or distracted and sometimes wasn't always down for reading the Book of Mormon, but looking back now, I can see what a blessing that was that we made the effort.
This past week has been pretty good. I was super happy as I was able to download some of the General Conference talks, and they were incredible! I loved the whole new thing where they can speak in the native language now. Unfortunately there is only one General Authority that is French at the moment. Ha-ha, but the talk that really hit me was the one by Elder Robbins about which way we face, in do we fear god or man more. Its a very common problem, that he showed even many prominent people in the scriptures have had, and something I’ve had a problem with as well, but he talked about the real importance of it, and showed the example of Jesus, in always being more perfectly obedient to his father rather than man, even if he would be persecuted so much for it. I loved all the talks as well on the importance of strengthening our testimonies. And also Elder Bednar's, where he talked about why we preach the gospel, and the story he told about his sons, when the one got treated by his brother, he went out and did the same for his friends, which is something I’ve seen a ton here where when people really feel the blessings of the gospel, they want everyone to hear about it. But yeah it was really nice to get to hear some of the talks, so I’m excited for the rest of them. So things are going pretty well here, again I lost my planner so a lot of stuff was left behind, but hopefully I’ll find that soon. Thanks for all the love and support!

                                                                          Elder Oliverson

Ghanvie

They told us some pretty interesting stuff about Ghanvie my second time around. As you know its the city in the middle of the lake built on the water to get away from slave traders. But its all on water, and they get around by boats, they call it the Venice of Africa, even though its nothing like Venice. They say the kids learn to swim when they are between 3 and 4 years old, as they really don't have a choice. Also they made a little island, so there is a 20 by 20 square of land, where they teach the kids to walk, as its the only solid flat ground. You can tell someone is from the city as they have a wierd form of walking because they dont have any land to walk on.

A little aids clinic.

Elder Mejean's depart back to France this week.

Seeing the Christ like virtues she’s developing living the gospel.

Bonjour!                                                                                                                    10/04/2014

Sorry again for no letter last week, as the connection has been down for us. Its back though finally as some Nigerian guy from the church came and fixed it! Things have been pretty good for us these past couple weeks, but we’ve been super busy as usual. Last week we had the big mission conference that President organized in hopes of getting everyone to commit to being more obedient, so that was really good. Most of the reaction from people was why didn’t we have this along time ago, so it went really well, and I’m thinking that it will start to catch on a lot more, as we have so many new missionaries getting in, it will get a bit of a fresh start. It was a really good conference as well as I really want to see what more I can do better and improve upon to finish the last part of the mission well. 

Last weekend we had some late nights when I got a call from President while in bed asking us to take a missionary to the hospital, as he was becoming super sick. So that took up a lot of our Saturday and Sunday. It ended up not being malaria though, but just really bad food poisoning. I will say though it looked pretty rough. Ha-ha, it also reminded me of how much I don’t want to have to spend a night in a hospital here. 

This past week President left to Togo for interviews so we’ve been holding down the fort once again which is always fun. Things are going well with our secteur also. Honestly though the past few weeks we’ve been so busy we haven’t been able to get a ton done in the secteur. Still though our Amis are coming along pretty well. We're still working hard on getting the marriage done for Rebecca’s family we have been teaching for a while now. The problem is there is so much paperwork needed that people don’t have here to do that. So they’ve been holding out still. We’ve still been working a lot on helping them center the family on the gospel though, and it’s coming along well. It’s been really great to see them striving to apply the gospel principles in the family, and in their lives. For example this past week on Sunday Rebecca the mom, found out that we had taken a missionary to the hospital, as he was sick. So when she got home from church she went and prepared a meal for him, then called us to come take her to the hospital to give it too him. I didn’t even think about doing that at all, so it was a really cool experience for me seeing the Christ like virtues she’s developing living the gospel. Its nice having them as a whole family as it seems to push them to do more, and to be more motivated. Every day when I stop by she has read an entire chapter of gospel principles with all the scriptures in them, and then gives me a lesson on what she has learned for the day. It is really cool to see how self-sufficient they are now in the gospel. We had a cool experience with them this last week. at the start of the week when me and my comp were planning for them, we were thinking about trying to have a fast with them in hopes of being able to move the marriage along faster. Later that week before we even could ask, Rebecca asked us if we could fast with them as they have this problem. We were a little surprised but were happy seeing their faith that way. So later that week we had a fast for a day, and ended it all together. At the end we took them to go visit another member from the Fidjrossee Branch. We had a good time talking to him as he was the old branch president and is an amazing guy. When he came to find out what the problem was holding them back from the marriage and baptism being the paperwork, he explained that his son had the same problem when he was trying to get his paperwork to go on the mission, so they found some guy in Porto Novo that could help him get the paperwork quickly to be able to leave on the mission. He said that he could surely help us in being able to get that together quickly so they could get baptized soon. It almost seemed too good to be true, but we could see it was a blessing coming from all the prayers and fasting so that they could get married and baptized faster. Things are going great here though, and the time is flying by! The work is still the greatest as well, and we're hoping to be able to get more out in the secteur, as President will be back this week. I hope all is well there though and I love and miss you all a ton!

                                              Elder Oliverson

This cool 

Ghanaian rasta guy that comes to our branch now. he's a member:)

Tried out the car the baby on the back thing like they do here. I realized it doesnt really work for me, because you kind of need a belly to be able to do it because it holds up the wrap, as you can see the Child wasn't  much of a fan.

Our hospital visit with Elder Mejean

Check out his shirt ha-ha :)