Holy cow!

We received this email today.

This week was way crazy!! We went to Manaus for interviews with the mission president, ate a bunch of fish, and then came back to our area and went on splits with the APs. We had a ton of good experiences this week. We had the chance to baptize two people who were referrals from members and a young man who has been coming to church every single week (and also every single night to play soccer) for a rediculously long time but had never been baptized. This week was finally the week! I learned a ton from President Castro and from the assistents this week. It is amazing how much I learn every single day.

One of the coolest things of being on a mission is that there is ALWAYS something you can improve on: teaching, working with members, finding new investigators, planning, using time wisely, strengthening your own testimony, helping others to strengthen their testimonies of the gospel.......Every day I realize again and again that I´m not even close to being perfect but at least I can be a little better than I was yesterday. 

That´s really what the gospel of Jesus Christ is all about. No one is perfect (1 John 1:8) but through faith, repentance and baptism we can become perfected, little by little, because of the atonement of Jesus Christ. One day we can be like God is (Romans 8:16-17) because we are literally His children. The gospel is amazing and it is amazing how it changes lives. The church is true!

I hope you all have the best week ever this week! I love you all! 

Love, 

Élder Olivier!!!

Week!

This email will be kind of small! But this week was a good one, as usual! Right now I officially have been on my mission for over a year! This week we went to the temple and today is transfer day! I am.......not being transferred!!! I will be staying in Manacapuru AGAIN with Élder Fernandez, meaning that he will have been my companion with whom I stayed the longest.

Scripture! Isaiah 29:14 "Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellouswork among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid."

We will proceed to do a marvellous work and a wonder among the people of Manacapuru!! Heck yeah!!

I love you all!! Love, Élder Olivier!!!!!

1 Year!!!!

We received this email on August 8, 2016.

Hi everyone!!!!

This week we pretty much worked even harder than ever before and we were blessed with four baptisms! We got three members to get into the water and baptize, which was way cool, especially because all three of them just got randomly hyped to baptize. Two of them are young men preparing to serve missions, and the third is a member of the bishopric. 

Every single day in the mission field is a blessing. Everything happens one day at a time, and there is no better feeling than to arrive at our apartment every night knowing that we did our very best that day. After my mission I´ll remember that ever day that I didn´t write in my journal, it was because we arrived at home at night tired out of our minds just wanting to collapse on the ground and sleep. Being on a mission is crazy 

Fotos: 

1 The other day at a member´s house there was a cacau!!! The actual flesh of the fruit doesn´t taste anything like chocolate (because chocolate is made from the seeds) but if you bite the seeds it is like the most bitter taste in the world. Everyone made fun of me because I bit the seeds but it was because I wanted to taste the chocolate!!!!

2&3 A turtle!!!!!

4 Só água só batiza!!!

I hope you all have the best week of your lives this week!!! I love you all!!!!

Love,

Élder Olivier!!!!!!

Festas na Terra e nos Ceus

We received this email on August 1, 2016.  

Hello everybody! 

This week was super awesome! We had a pretty cool experience this week. We have been working for a while to help our bishop´s sister´s family come back to church, and this week we finally had the opportunity to get them to come to church! Their kids have actually been coming to church for a couple of weeks, and we actually found their family because of them. We had the opportunity to baptize the bishop´s nephew and niece, and the bishop got to enter into the waters!!! Their family had lived for a while on the "estrada," basically on a farm far away from the city, so it has been a while since they have been to church. The father is not a member, and at first he was super reluctant to let his kids be baptized, but with a little convincing from his wife his heart was softened. Só alegria! 

Also this week there was a holiday here in Brazil called Festa Junina, and at church there was a huge activity where the primary did a special dance. It was super sweet and there was a lot of food.

I love you guys and hope you have a great week! Abração!

Élder Olivier!