Super Amazing Incredible Week

We received this email on Tuesday, March 28...

Hey everyone! 

I´m owing you all some photos for the past couple of weeks, so here is a selection of some of the finest I have to offer. Elder Castro with a frog, our fancy new shower, a really special baptismal meeting.....

This week was super hectic because we did tons of stuff. We went around inspecting all of the missionaries´ houses in our zone with one of president Castro´s counselors, we worked a ton, and we had zone conference (zone conf was yesterday- that´s why I´m emailing on tuesday this week). Working with Elder Castro has been great so far. He used to be the mission executive secretary so he knows all sorts of stuff about the mission. He´s also really hard working and super funny. 

On Saturday we baptized Michele and her baptism-aged kids. She was already friends with more than a few of the members of the ward, so it was a really special baptism. Over the past couple of weeks we have really grown to love their whole family as we helped them to overcome some dificulties..... The answer to every problem that ever existed is the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am a first-hand witness of that.

Love you all!

Élder Olivier

Changes

We received this email on March 20...

These past couple of weeks have been really crazy, because there were a lot of transitions (we went to Manaus and back, I changed companions, etc). Lots of riding on planes, buses, and taxis. And killing spiders. The Brazil Manaus mission must be the most expensive mission in the world because of all the travel. My new companion is Elder Castro (wait - is everyone in Brazil named "Castro?"), and so far it looks like we´re going to put in some great work together here in Rio Branco. He is a little newer in the mission than I am, and he´s super excited to get working. I´m going to miss my old companion but changes are normal. Unfortunately I have no pictures this week :( (lame, I know.....). But I just want to remind you all that I love you all and have an incredible week! 

Love, 

Élder Olivier!

We found these few pictures...

Baptism

Leadership Council

March Madness

We received this email on March 6.

This week was super special. 

We finally had the baptism of Flavia, who we´ve been teaching for a little more than a month. Her boyfriend (who has been returning to church after spending quite a long time less-active) actually invited her to come to church with him one week, and we met her and set up a teaching appointment. She really just ate up everything we taught her. We invited her to read the Book of Mormon and she nearly finished 1 and 2 Nephi in one week. Though there were some dificulties (and plenty of people to talk bad about the church to her) it was a very spiritual experience to see her in the waters of baptism. No one who reads the Book of Mormon daily in the spirit of prayer and in humility can deny that it is true. This was one of the many incredible things that happened this week. Zone Conference was killer too. 

I love you all! 

Love,

Élder Olivier

This Week

We received this email from Elder Olivier on February 27. Excerpts are as follows:

Looks like you all had a great week! My week was pretty good too. Yes, it is raining a lot here. A lot. We´re in the rainy season, so it rains every single day, and sometimes it rains for like most of the day. No more drying clothes on the clothes hangers that aren´t under a roof. 

Our health has been great! No more sickness! 

Mostly we just see big spiders and cockroaches. The cockroaches can get really big, like maybe four inches long. We started spraying our house with TONS of bug spray every p-day so that everything that finds its way into our house dies, except humans. 

When you guys said that the bishop said to pray for all of the missionaries in the ward by name because this week was going to be really hard, I told my companion and we thought that our area was going to flood this week. Everyone has been talking about annual river flooding and how usually at this time of year it happens. When it happens everyone that lives in our area has to leave and go live somewhere else for a couple of weeks. That´s because apparently in this area they weren´t supposed to build stuff because the river floods here, but people built stuff anyway. But luckily nothing has happened.....yet. 

The bishop´s inlaws are doing great! 

Love, 

Elder Olivier 

Miracles

Elder Olivier had an amazing week!  We were so happy to hear about this baptism!!!  Miracles do happen.  Here is his email:


Wow. Busy week. 

This week we went to Manaus (again, for the 1,000,000th time!) to go on exchanges with the assistants. It was good, but my companion got sick again. The only difference is that this time he passed his sickness to me too! haha. But now we´re 100% again. We stayed in Manaus just for a day, then we came back. The only flights are in the middle of the night, so we got 0 sleep. Got some sweet night-time aerial view pics of Manaus though. 

So this week was finally the week we have been waiting soooo long for. When I got here in the area about 4 months ago, we went to the bishop´s house to see if he knew anyone we could teach. We talked to the bishop´s wife. She said that at that moment she didn´t have anyone in mind, so we asked her if she knew anyone that was less-active that we could visit. She said we could visit her nieces, who lived next door with her parents. 

"And are your parents members?"

"No. But it´s not worth it to try and teach them. Lots of elders have already tried. They´ll never accept." 

Long story short, Saturday was their baptism. 

At the baptism, the bishop´s wife gave the opening prayer. She spent like 10 minutes trying to talk, but she couldn´t hold back tears. Lots of ward and family members got really emotional. Everything happens in the Lord´s time. 

Miracles happen. I know that God lives, and that Jesus Christ is our Savior. 

Have an awesome week!

Love,

Élder Olivier!

Elder Olivier calls this the dream team:)

A Minha Semana

We received this email on February 13.

Hey everyone! 

I failed to send an email last week so I will talk about these past two weeks!

Last week we went to Manaus, which means we spent the usual 3 days outside our area. Leadership conference was great, as usual. We received a lot of inspiration to help out our zone. We always get back to our area way tired, but we still have to work a ton to make up for lost time. 

This week we did companionship exchanges with three different district leaders. They all went really well. It was a little different working with a different missionary every single day, but it was a great experience. I always learn a ton from other missionaries. 

Now I officially am a year and 6 months into my mission. Where has the time gone? Time flies for real 

Reflecting on these past few months, I have learned so much. I don´t know where I would be right now if I wasn´t on a mission. I would never trade serving a mission for anything. Certainly I´m not perfect, as no one is, and in this past year and a half I have realized just how not perfect I am. But now I know with much more surety that I have infinite potential, because I am a child of God. We all are His children, and He loves us and wants what´s best for us. I´m not perfect now, but one day I can be perfect like He is if I continue to do what´s right and to repent of my sins. This is a promise that He makes to all of us. I know it´s true.

I hope you all have a great week! 

Love, 

Élder Olivier

Chilling on an airplane

 Aerial view of the ´zil

A very friendly spider   

Eating american food on pday (BLT and french fries- classic)

Leadership Council

We received a very short email on February 6, but got this picture of their leadership council...