Still no connection

Hey, we're still working on getting the connection here, so I'll try to write tomorrow!  :((

No connection

He, sorry we haven't had connection so I'll be sure to write you guys soon!

Basic Truths

Bonjour!                                                                                                                   09/20/2014

This past week has been pretty good, but super busy like usual. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get much done in our area till the end of the week, as at the beginning we were very busy with some problems that came up. 

On Tuesday we had the arrival of a big group of missionaries. Along with that it was the biggest group of Americans we’ve got in over a year and a half. It was really cool to see all of them, and was kind of a flashback to how it was when I first got here as well. There are so many things that just seem normal now, that before were the craziest thing ever, but you just get used to it. We didn’t get to spend too much time with them though as President had us running around helping with some other things that came up. Later that night we went and dropped some of the missionaries off as well, which is always fun too. As the road between the airport and the mission home is probably the nicest and prettiest area in the whole mission, they get here thinking it kind of a nice tropical vacation place. Then you start driving them to their area and they realize its not exactly what they thought, Ha-ha. They all seem to be adjusting well though as now they start out in the Ghana MTC, so some of the shock is taken away from that. 

The next day we spent a lot of time taking the rest of the new missionaries out into their apartments so that took up most the day. We were originally planning on going to Togo that day, but luckily President Blaise came over here to Benin, so when returning to Togo was able to take some missionaries with him. Letting us have time later on to go teach some lessons. We weren’t able to get too many lessons taught this week, but the ones we did were good which was nice. 

One in particular was a contact of a girl that we found as she works at this good food place not far from our apartment. Elder Izekor is never too fond of going there, but I convinced him that as we were able to start getting the contacts of the workers, it was basically mission work Ha-ha, but when we got to her place her whole family was there, so we had the chance to talk with all of them. The best part is her Mom was there as well, and it’s always easy to get the Mom's interest when you share that our message is centered on families. When we were teaching them most everything we focused on was about the family, and she loved it. She’s been in many many different churches, and has enjoyed it, but said that she has never seen one where there is this much focus on the family. We talked a lot about he basic truths that are found in the "Proclamation to the World" for example, and you could see that it was stuff they probably hadn’t heard much before, but when they did it just made complete sense to them. It was a great lesson, so we're excited to start teaching that family a lot more. 

Another bright spot of the week was that our recent convert Sarah just got back from the Temple trip, so we got to hear all about that. I remember back home, we would go to the Temple just whenever, or just for mutual, and it didn’t seem huge. But here when there is a Temple trip its a whole different story, especially those who make the big sacrifices to go, and when they come back you can see it is something they will never forget at all. Along with that with just her going to the Temple it was a big motivation for the rest of her family to push towards that as well. The happiest part was when we found out that she saved up all the money herself to be able to go to the Temple, it made me think a lot about the sacrifices I need to make to be better, and to go to the Temple more often when I get home. 

All is going great here though, today we have a big activity for the Branch in preparation for the Branch Conference tomorrow, so we have to leave soon to get ready for that. I hope all is great back there though, thanks for all the love and support.

              Elder Oliverson

We’ve learned a lot together.

Bonjour,                                                                                                                   09/13/2014

 This past week has been pretty good! President left to Togo as well, so we’ve been a little more busy here than usual. We had a really long meeting with him on Monday, a little longer than usual, for planning and such. A lot of it too was about how we could apply the things that Elder Curtis taught, more in the mission. He talked again about Elder Curtis’s calling, and how it’s true that he knew some things about the mission already, but still if you look at the things he taught, it was exactly what we needed. So I really like how President wants to make the most out of the visit, and see things improve because of it, so we’ve been working a lot on that for making plans. Along with that we’ve had a lot of appointments with the missionaries, and President has had me translating some stuff for him. Usually the translating wouldn’t be too difficult, but when you start reading the letter and realize its very important, that makes you a little stressed, then you see that it has to do with business and law stuff, the kind of vocabulary I don’t have, it took a while. Ha-ha it was the types of words I wouldn’t even know in English, and even when showing it to a couple of French people, they didn’t understand either, so I didn’t feel to bad, but all in all I was able to finally get that finished. 

The past week we’ve had a lot of missed rendezvous. Yet we’ve been able to find people to fill in for them, meaning we’ve found some really good new Amis, and some older ones as well. So we’ve had many prayers answered for sure. As we’ve been really busy, we’ve done our best to get out and look, but haven’t been able to a ton. But still were finding Amis, for example the other day, when we walked outside there was a lady looking at the sign for the church in front of the bureau. We asked what was up, and she told us she wanted us to start teaching her, so we took contact and started a little lesson. We didn’t have much time, yet still talked a bit, and the four questions she asked were. How do you guys baptize and confirm people, do you have the Sacrament, do you have a Prophet, and how can I join your church. It was either she is a little crazy, or just someone really prepared, so we’ll have to see how that goes. We picked up an old Ami as well, that has been taught by the missionaries for a couple years already. But has had a few rough experiences with them. Well have to see how it goes but it’s going really good so far! It’s a mom and daughter the mom is Congolese, and the daughter is Congolese/French. And oh her French is just wonderful. Either ways they’re both actually really intelligent, so teaching them is a bit different than usual. We're hoping it will work out though, as I’ve seen that on my mission where because of one reason or another someone wasn’t ready at one time, then later on they were there finally. 

We also finalized the transfer this week, so that got out a few days ago and it will be a pretty big one. Usually we will do the transfer over a two week span where we do one half the first week then finish it the next. But we decided rather to try and get it all done in three days. So next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will be pretty busy, as we have a big group of new missionaries getting in, and then on Wednesday we are going over to Togo. 

Things are going good with my companion, and we’ve learned a lot together. Something I’ve always known that I’ve gotten to know better is that if there is any contention in a companionship, the spirit won't be there. Even if you think you are right, and the other is wrong, and there are problems because of it, things won’t work out, you have to be completely unified. I remember a MTC branch president saying that he would tell his missionaries that when they came to him with problems he would rather they both be right, or they both be wrong, rather than one right and one wrong. It was kind of hard to understand at first, but it makes much more sense now, so we’ve been putting a lot of work in being more unified, and its paying off in our lessons as well so that’s been really good!        

This past night there was a little voodoo party (where they just hit their drums) going on outside our apartment. It started at like 10 but I was still able to fall asleep with it. I woke up again at 2 though, to hear them still hitting the drums, then again at 4 still hearing the drums, then again at 6, and they were still hitting the same drums. I realized that they really had been playing their drums the entire 8 hours that night. Then in the morning when we went out, we were driving down the road and saw a huge crowd, which usually means someone got hit by a motto or something. But then I saw that in the middle of the crowd there was a revanon, one of those so called voodoo "ghosts" that have legs and look an awful lot like a human body. Either way he was laying in the middle of the road, so I’m not sure what was up with all of that, but assumed it was probably the long party they had the night before. I remember hearing from the brothers about the chicken fights that would keep them up at night, so now I better understand what that is like to have your sleep ruined. Ha-ha, other than that though things are going really well here.

 But yeah thanks again for all the pictures!! They were the best! I love and miss you all a ton! I hope all goes well there this next week.

Elder Oliverson

Elder Curtis--The impressions of the spirit!

Bonjour,                                                                                                                   09/06/2014

This past week has been super busy, but great with the visit of Elder Curtis. Sunday was a good day, as the Branch President taught the lesson in the Gbegamey Branch, which was really good, and a good example as well to the members on how to give a lesson. They have us give talks, lessons from time to time, as you realize that often the people have no ideas how to give them. Back home I remember it was never difficult, as you see very experienced members giving talks each week. It was good though and hopefully it will help out! 

On Sunday we had a double mangez-vous day. As we had two dinners, so we finished the day feeling well. On Monday we had Elder Welch and Woodland come in, as they were leaving home on Tuesday, which like usual is weird to see. There will be a lot of changes in the mission in the next few months as there are so many missionaries coming and going. We also had a solid family home evening with Rebecca’s family as well, and we had Sarah our new convert give the lesson. Its always fun giving a good lesson, but its like a million times better seeing one of your converts give a great lesson as well. It’s really fun to see converts that seek to develop quickly after baptism. 

That night Welch and Woodland stayed with us so that was nice as well. The next day we were super busy once again with doctor appointments, and a ton of other stuff, but were still able to get some rendezvous in so that was nice! Elder Izekor and me tried to do a little more tracking this week, as its been a while since we have had to, since we have members to give us contacts usually. It’s been a while since I’ve done it, as the last time I did was on a split back in Togo as Zone leader. It was a lot of fun though, and I enjoy doing it, because it’s all centered around following the spirit, then exercising faith in talking to someone. I did notice though that the people aren’t all as nice and open as back in Togo, but still you can just walk into most of their homes and start talking to them if you want to.                 

We were able to fix a baptismal date as well with one of our Amis named Cedric, who we’ve been teaching for a while now. He’s told us multiple times he knows the church is true from prayer, and that he needs to be baptized, but he’s been unsure as to if he is ready and such. So we’ve been explaining to him for a while that if he is waiting till he’s perfect, he will never get baptized, so it was nice to finally get a date fixed with him. 

For the first part of the week, President Morin was in Togo with Elder Curtis and his wife, as they stopped there first. Then on Thursday they flew into Cotonou, so we went to pick them up there. It was the first time I met Elder Curtis, but it was awesome no doubt, its incredible how much light one person can bring into a room, or just being in their presence. He was the nicest person ever, and had a really funny sense of humor as well; his wife was super nice and smiley like all the wives of 70's. We brought them back to the mission, and were able to spend some good time with them. I don’t even know how they do it though; on Sunday he was in Ghana, then Togo for two days, then Benin for two days, then Nigeria for the weekend. And they have hardly any rest time, yet they are so inspired and you wouldn’t even know all the work they’ve done. It was a super cool experience getting to be with him, so I hope to not forget that. That same day a couple hours after getting in, we had a devotional with the members in Cotonou. It was actually really impressive, as they only had about a one-week notice, which is sketchy here. Yet there were still hundreds of members that showed up, so it was really good to see their faith. One of the coolest parts I noticed with Elder Curtis, is that when he is in a meeting, he waits till he gets their and sees everyone there, that he pulls a notebook out, then stops, and starts thinking and listening for different things he should talk about. It was interesting to see someone that is that good at hearing the impressions of the spirit, they can do that. He gave a very simple talk, but it was super powerful at the same time. He talked as well about how we are hoping for the first building in Benin next year, along with the first Stake. Then on Friday we had the conference with him with only the missionaries, so we left there early to go set up for that and get everything ready. That like all the other mission conferences with 70's was great, but this on was very spiritual and was an awesome meeting. He talked a lot about obedience and brotherhood, which are both probably the two biggest weaknesses in the mission. It was interesting though, as he was able to correct us and tell us to be better, but in a very very loving way. It was cool talking with people after as well, as everyone could see stuff they had to improve on, but were positive at the same time, as the spirit was so strong and he did it in such a loving way. One of the things that he said that I loved was what Elder Holland had told them, in that the hours between when you wake up, and go out to teach will either make or break your mission. Everyone knows studies and everything in the morning are important, but it was interesting to hear it that way, but is very true at the same time. Those men are incredible and so inspired. It was probably my favorite visit that we’ve had no doubt. 

That took up about half the day, so by night we didn’t have much more time, and had to take some missionaries around. Today I’ve been pretty busy as well, as I had to wash the clothes and clean the apartment, as it’s been a few weeks since we’ve had a real P-day, with being so busy. It’s been really nice though at the same time, and the time is flying by! Elder Izekor is still catching on the driving aspect, so that’s getting better. We will be having a huge transfer in a few weeks with a bunch of new missionaries coming in, so we’ve been and will be very busy with that as well. 

        Things are still good with the work as well!  Thanks for all the love and support! I miss you guys a ton!

                                    Elder Oliverson

Elder Curtis's visit. 

Ask the Lord!

Bonjour,                                                                                                                   08/30/2014

Highlight of the week, is that I am back over 200 pounds!:) 202 so things are looking better that way! This past week has gone by pretty well, and has been really busy at the same time. On Monday one of the zones wanted to do a zone activity at Ouidah, and needed us to take them, so we "had" to go with them. It was a ton of fun though! It’s been about a year since the last time I went, so it was still pretty exciting stuff! The drive there wasn’t too fun. So I am much more thankful now for Elder Poll the first time he drove us out there, being the one having to drive this time. It was pretty fun though, and playing with the pythons is just normal stuff by now! Still weird getting the voodoo tour they do every time, which makes no sense but still cool. They believe that it was the pythons here that saved their ancestors so they worship them in a way, and have a little temple full of them. So we had a good time there, even though half the missionaries wouldn’t touch the snakes, which is understandable. Then afterwards we drove out to the beach not far away where they have the monument for the point of no return. Where they would come pick up the slaves and take them away. It was nice being there, and also seeing one of the old forts where they would keep the slaves and such. The activity took a while, but we were able to get back pretty early, and getting back we had a meeting with President which took a long while as well. All in all we weren’t able to get into the secteur too much that day.

 Also this week, we had a big group of missionaries leave, to Madagascar, and Desvergez leaving to France. Along with that he got back to Benin on Monday, and stayed with us till he left on Saturday, and it was just like the good old days!! It was nice having that time with him again, and getting to stay together just like it was a year ago, I miss those times for sure. The big problem came when he was supposed to fly home Thursday, but got to the airport, and found that his ticket had not yet been purchased yet. What better way to go home then to not even have a flight, so I’m sure his family was pretty upset, especially his mom. So the next day on Friday, President had us do all we could to figure out how to get him home as quickly as possible, as he had to get back to school on Monday. The problem when we went into air France though was that they said they had no places available till September 17th. So we realized there wasn't much hope there. We kept trying to contact Ghana who was supposed to be ordering the plans, but they are almost impossible to get a hold of. This is by the end of the day where we had tried about everything possible. So Desvergez and me decided to pray. Sure enough, even though we had called Ghana already 20 times that day, this time they finally answered, and tried to explain what happened. Within twenty minutes they were able to get him a flight home that same night, so all finished well there! It was interesting to see a bit, that all we had to do was ask the Lord, and keep working, and there was his help. It made us think a bit if we had asked the Lord earlier for help, would it have been solved earlier?

 On Wednesday we had Zone Conference. It was the first for President Morin, and like the others it was great as well. It was weird though as I was sitting back in Gbedromede for a Zone Conference, and thinking about the Zone Conferences at the start of the mission. It really doesn’t seem like that long ago, and seeing now that Ringle and me are some of the older elders, was scary to think about the lack of time that is left. The conference was also nice and relaxing not teaching like the last one:). Things have been super busy this week with the work, and we have been running around everywhere. Even today we had a mass wedding in Calavi. There was either 9 or 10 couples that were getting married to be able to get baptized! It was super cool to see, as we had to be there for transport and such. It was the first time they had done that here, and will also result in a ton of baptisms for the week, and many new couples in the church. Like I said we weren’t able to get a ton done in our secteur, as we had a ton of meetings and things for getting ready for the visit of Elder Curtis and such, but we did get the work we could done. 

There is one family in particular that we’ve been visiting more lately, who have actually been member for a couple years now. They were supposed to go through the temple all last year, but couldn’t, because of money issues. This year as well, they weren’t able to go, because of money problems again. They’ve had a hard time lately, and are starting to get much more discouraged as they haven’t been able to go. It is an awesome family as well; who is always at church, the kids know all the hymns, and they hold family home evening each week. It was tough seeing them get held back, and how down they were, but we’ve been teaching them a lot about temples, and perseverance, which has been really good for them. We’ve started bringing temple pictures to all our Amis and recent converts houses as well to put up. I remember a bunch of temple pictures in our house growing up, but never thought much about it. I remember hearing though, as they really want to help new converts get focused on the temple rather than fall inactive, to do all we can to keep their eyes on the temple, in every way possible. It has had its effects as well, helping them see the temple each day keeps them motivated and reminded of where their priorities should be. Things are all well here though, the time is short though as we just got back from the weddings though, so I hope all continues to go well there!

         Were all really excited for the arrival of Elder Curtis as well. I don’t know how 70s do it. If you could see the schedule we have for him, on his four-day visit, at all hours of the day, he is either on a plane, in a conference, in interviews, or in meetings with the District Presidency. It’s crazy how busy they are; yet when they hold conferences and such, they are still so well prepared and inspired. Were actually picking him up from the airport on Wednesday, and he'll be here till Friday, and then he'll leave to Nigeria. It should be really cool to get to meet him and be with him.   things are great here, its so crazy to see how fast time has gone by. Being back in Benin and seeing where I started, it’s hard to believe it’s been a year and a half since I was here last. My two trainers Elder Soanantenaina and Desvergez left this past week as well, so that was weird to see. The weather is getting better here little by little, which is nice. I’m teaching Elder Izekor how to drive as well, which is one of the hardest things ever. I’m not looking forward to teaching my kids how to drive. I don’t remember it being this rough. Either ways things are going really great here! We are hoping we will be able to get more work done in our secteur next week though! I love and miss you all a ton!

Elder Oliverson

Ouidah

Last dinner with Ambroise family, before Elder Desvergez left!

The night desvergez was supposed to leave.

Desvergez didnt leave, but the day after instead, and after working on it all day that night we were able to get the flight to France... so we celebrated with ice cream of course:)

All the couples getting married at Calavi!

Christ not only suffered for our sins, but also all the pains and afflictions we will ever have.

Bonjour!                                                                                                             08/23/2014

This past week has been pretty good, as we’ve been holding the fort down with President being in Togo for the week. On Monday we had a soccer activity here for all the missionaries against the members. Like usual it was pretty rough to say the least. Ha-ha, seeing that we started the game off with multiple Americans, as our Ivoirian elders hadn’t gotten there yet, we got in a pretty big hole, and there was no coming back. In the end we lost 6-2, but hey it could have been worse. On the bright side I had my football, so that made the loss not feel too bad at all! We started the week off with a really good FHE with one of our families, and watched "The Testaments". That on is a killer! I’ve never watched it here without seeing someone cry.  its good though for helping them understand the Saviors love for us, and also the fact that he visited the Americas. On Tuesday I spent half the day taking some elders to the dentist. And on top of that they all got teeth removed, so we spent a while there. It just reassured me as well to never go to a dentist here, Ha-ha.
      We’ve been super busy, so we haven’t been able to get a ton done in the secteur, but its still been good, as we’ve found a couple new Amis, and have received a ton of contacts as well. So now we just need the time to go visit them! This past week though we have had the time to visit a few in actives though which has been good.  Because there aren’t many members here in the secteur, there aren’t many people to visit those in actives. The visits though have really showed me that it doesn’t really take much to help them out, but really just visiting them, and helping them feel loved and that you we're thinking about them already does a ton. So it was nice getting the chance to visit some of them! One in particular has been baptized for a while, but refuses to get the Priesthood, as he’s worried if he does, his family we curse him with voodoo or something. So it’s been tough trying to get him to understand, but hopefully that will come along! That’s one of the tough things here is most people believe in that, so when you try to counsel them to avoid it and such, they just say that you don’t understand being from America. Which is why its really nice having an African as a companion who can back you up, and teach the truth. That comes in handy a lot for sure. For example this past week we got talking to a group of guys, and they told us they were having a little discussion about something, and wanted our opinion on it. It had to do with the law of chastity, so I just explained it simply how the Lord sees it, and the importance of the commandment. They accepted it, but then said that the culture where I come from is much different than Africa, so things aren’t the same. (Which is kind of funny seeing America has some serious problems that way, Ha-ha) But it was really nice having an African companion that related to them, and was able to explain these things to them. We had another good lesson as well. With the mother of Rebecca, who is the mom in the family that we're hoping to baptize soon. She was visiting them, and asked Rebecca to come get us. That she wanted us to come talk to and bless her, but not to bring her into the church. When we got there you could see that she wasn’t doing well at all, and was so depressed you could see it physically. She took a while explaining some problems she is having, and how depressed and sad she is with life. We started teaching her about the atonement, and what it means that Christ not only suffered for our sins, but also all the pains and afflictions we will ever have, so that he could help us in our times of need. It was really cool teaching her about this, as you could see its something that she never really understood before. We explained as well that its coming closer to Christ that we can really have the peace we need, and in following our message, it’s the best way in coming closer to him. It went really well, and was a good way of starting the lessons with her, so we're hoping that will go well! So things have been pretty good here! We’ve been super busy, and just got everything done getting everything ready to make the new Porto Novo branch, which is cool as its only been a few months that missionaries are there. Its still been pretty cool as the rainy season is finishing up, so things are really nice right now. A highlight of the week came when we were visiting some Elders in Fidjrosse, and stopped at a member’s house, and they had honey. It was the craziest thing ever having honey for the first time in like 18 months! Things are going good, next week we have zone conferences, and the week after, the visit from Elder Curtis, so that will be really good.

       Things are all going really well here though! Thanks a ton for the love and support!
Elder Oliverson

Just flexin our muscles:) I've never been a big fan of the soccer jerseys they get us here, as they never have XL.

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