Not Sick Anymore!

Elder Olivier sent this email today!

Working here in Manaus is definitely a lot different than working in my last area. I´m in a different state so almost everything is different- the people, the culture, the food. It´s crazy how within the same mission areas can be so different. 

I´m still adapting to being in Manaus. Manaus is wayyyy hot. This week I actually got a little sick with dengue, so I had to rest for a couple of days until the effects passed. Now I´m 100% better! 

This week we had zone conference, which was actually combined with another zone. The zones separated and we gave a short training to our zone, then they combined again and President Castro, Sister Castro, and the assistants gave training. Good stuff. 

A thing that Sister Castro challenged the mission to do is to read the Book of Mormon, underlining the names and titles of deity. It is amazing to see how much the Book of Mormon talks about the Savior. Joseph Smith once said that through reading and pondering the Book of Mormon, a man can get closer to God than he can through any other book. I know that to be true. 

Have a great week!

Love, 

Élder Olivier

Zone Conference (Elder Olivier is front row, third from left.  His Companion is front row, second from left)

Leadership Training Meeting (Elder Olivier is second row, third from left)

Mother's Day Skype!

We received this email from Elder Olivier on May 15, the day after Mother's Day where we were able to Skype with him for about an hour. He had let us know he wasn't feeling too good and naturally we were concerned. 


Today I am feeling a lot better! Last night my companion gave me a blessing and I woke up today feeling way better. I don´t even have a headache anymore and my eyes went back to normal. I haven´t gone to the hospital but I´ve been drinking tons of water. Thank you so much for the concerns and the prayers. 

Sounds like you all had a great week and a great mother´s day. I don´t really know what else to say because we already talked yesterday, haha. Hope you guys have a great week!

Here is a picture of my companion and I! By the Black River! 

Chillin in Manaus

We received this e-mail on May 8.

This week Elder Marcolino and I spent the whole week hunting down three investigators that usually are easy to find at home but for some reason all three of them decided to dissapear for an entire week. We were joking that every new person that we teach gets put into a facebook group called "Elder Olivier and Elder Marcolinos´ investigators," where all of our investigators collectively decided to not talk to us for certain periods of time. Sounds crazy but it just might actually be real. Haha. Sometimes missionary work is like that. Miraculously, we managed to talk to all three of them on saturday. 

This week everyone in our district got check-ups from some doctor guy. He came to our district meeting. He asked me if I feel any pain and I said "no," but he said that my knee looks kind of crooked, wrote on his paper that I need to do a knee- exam (he didn´t even ask me to do some kind of movement with my knee- he just looked at it). Luckily my companion was actually having knee pain because if not, I wouldn´t have even gone to the doctor. They put me inside of a giant machine that scanned my knee. 

Something I´ve been pondering about a lot lately is about reading the scriptures. Our mission president and his wife challenged us to read the Book of Mormon and underline every time one of the members of deity is mentioned, by name or title. It is amazing how every time I read the Book of Mormon again I understand tons of new things. I am coming to learn that when we read the scriptures every single day, we can really feel the spirit more throughout the day and we can really learn how to follow the Savior. I love the Book of Mormon and I know it is true. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Élder Olivier

Happy May Day!

We received this letter from Elder Olivier on May 1.

Hi everyone! 

Right now I´m in two wards in Manaus (the third time I´m in two wards- that´s a lot of wards) called Lagoa Verde (Green Lake) and Colônia Oliveira Machado (Olivier Axe Farm). It´s really close to downtown Manaus, so it is actually way different from my first area. My companion´s name is Elder Marcolino and he´s from Rio de Janeiro (January river). I´m a zone leader again. And it turns out that President Castro moved some of the zones around and he pretty much put me in the same exact zone as I was in when I was in Manacapuru, which is cool because I'll probably be able to do exchanges there in my old area. And because I´m already pretty familiar with all of the areas here, except a couple. 

I don´t know about skype yet. My companion is also pretty new in this area so we´ll hunt down someone that has skype this week. 

You guys will be great trek parents! Just be cool and chill and don´t beat your children.

I don´t have too much time this week to send emails, nor do I have any fotos (sorry!). Next week I´ll have some for sure! I love you all!

Love, 

Elder Olivier