Wednesday, April 27, 2016

4-25-16

 Our district :) Sis Nelson, Elder Mink, Sis Wayman, Elder Cahoon, Sis Huffaker, Elder Schofield, Me, Elder Tunquist, Sister Johnson, President Johnson!
 Us with the Jenkins after dinner :) (bishop and his family)
 Sister Nelson and I on our weekly planning walk :)
 Pizza Hut!
Here is a cloud that looks like a squirrel! :)

It's been another great week, hope you all had a wonderful week as well!
This week we had interviews with President Johnson, it was great! So crazy to think that that will be my last interview before my departing interview! He kept saying saying "Sister Oliver you only have 9 weeks from today, nine weeks!" That is so weird and now it's even shorter, 8 weeks! He told me that for my last transfer I would have to do what is called My Plan every week, which is where you make a detailed plan for life after the mish.. He also asked a question about our testimonies are, and I can truly say that mine has grown and continues to grow each and every day and I'm so grateful for that! So mission presidents also give every departing missionary a temple recommend before going home so that they can make sure that we stay involved in next phase of life This temple recommend only lasts 90 days after we get home. But he did mine now so that when we get to the mission home our last day we can do some fun activities :) you know, I was expecting to feel really trunky after interviews, but I really have a desire to just keep working hard, to do better, to fulfill my purpose as a missionary even more with the time I have left! I mean I still have 8 weeks! A lot can happen in that time!  Sister Johnson also taught a district meeting about commitments! It was so great! Commitments are so important! The best way to help people to repent and come unto Christ is by helping them to make and keep commitments! 
Can I just say I love service! this week we did some service with Sue (a less active members wife) we weeded her garden. I love being outside and doing service! I almost sprained my ankle and messed up my knee by going off of a step into the grass wrong, definitely fell, but it's all good, no injuries! Hahaha
Sister Nelson made a red velvet cake and ate the entire thing in 2 days hahaha that was impressive, I don't even know where she puts it! She's probably the funniest person ever, she is so quiet, but when you get to know her she is crazy! She can do 20 things all at the same time, and just has so much energy! This week for her to get some energy out before starting our weekly planning, she ran up and down the hill by our house a few times! Aaand I just walked.. She also gave a talk on Sunday! I had one of those proud mama moments seeing her up there, it was only the 3rd talk she has ever given, she is growing so much!
We decided to try something new, we decided to walk and plan because the weather has been beautiful and we don't have all the distractions around our apartment, plus it gets people driving past to see us, and if any opportunities we can talk to people we may see! It was great! I feel like our planning was much more effective! Plus we got some extra exercise! I'll admit I was definitely sore the next day, but we did also decide to go running that morning as well! Apparently my hip wasn't very happy with that though, cause it hurt SO bad! I could barely walk home from our dinner just down the street, but it's all good cause it's better now! :)
I finished reading the Old Testament this week... It may or may not have been the children's version, but it happened! I love the scriptures! It was awesome as I read how it gives you the basics of the story and I now know more of the Old Testament stories!
One of the Less active members that we are working with, RJ, has a hard time focusing on the lesson, and gets distracted real easily by his dog. We read 1 Nephi 8 with him and talked about the tree of life. We got the idea to start using more visuals, we drew the tree of life scene with him and he responded really well to that! So Vikram got baptized and said he had a good experience. But he is still meeting with us, so that's great! He wanted to know more about the godhead and then of the second coming. We showed him the gospel principles Manuel, he ended up reading right there about the second coming, millennium, and exultation. He thought it was awesome! We ended up mostly talking about the priesthood, we bore testimony to him of the power of the priesthood and how it has blessed our lives. We invited him to pray about it. It was also cool, he asked why, after all the persecution, our church is still going, we bore testimony of the truthfulness of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! He volunteered to say the closing prayer! It was such a sweet prayer, he said "Thanks for the love that I feel every time these girls come and teach me!" He just seems so excited when we teach him and it's just so great! He said that he would not be able to come to church this Sunday due to being out of town, but said for sure the next week!
   

Sunday, April 17, 2016

4-11-16

Sister McDonald and I on exchanges, we heart attacked some people :)
 
 Dinner with the Jenkins :)
 Zone activity
 Pittsburgh North Zone! :)
 Hahaha so I ordered a name tags back when I was comps w Sis Landa, she's a Spanish speaker and I ended up getting a Spanish name tag.. #Iaintevenmad
 This is what happened when Sister Nelson goes to the bathroom
Hahaha so sister Nelson is super funny, but also super quiet so nobody even knows, so I captured some moments.. :) She decided it would be a good idea to play hide and seek, our apt is tiny, so this is the place the found.

Oh and we didn't unlock our car, so this is how we found the elders.. 
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This week was great! We got to go on exchanges! I got to go to Pitt 3 with Sister McDonald! I love her so much! She is probably one of the funniest people, but she is also so loving, I could tell as she interacted with the people there in her area that she truly does love them and cares about what is going on in their lives! I really don't think I have ever laughed so much in my life though! Like my head and cheek hurt so bad! Haha so we did Service at a food pantry with a bunch of older people, there were some brownies and one of the guys was joking that they were "magic brownies", one of the ladies looked confused, so another one of the ladies was trying to explain what that was to her.. Haha. Also, fun fact, The Dance moms dance studio is in their area! That was cool! 
This week we taught Olivia, we really want her to gain a Testimony of the Book of Mormon. We know that she will be able to recieve answers to her questions if she does! So our commitment to her was to read from the Book of Mormon every day, and we took the questions that she has so we can further study them and help her, but I know that the Book of Mormon and the spirit will help her Much more than we can.
We also saw Vikram, he seems really golden, but he did tell us he had plans to get baptized into another faith, right after that though he asked if he could still come see what our church was like, and he came to church yesterday! And not only church but to an Interfaith gathering at our ward building after, he was at the church for 6 hours!!! We asked him what he thought of everything, and he said it was awesome and he loved it! He then confirmed our visit for this coming Saturday! I'm really excited to see where he ends up! Haha so funny story about his visit, so we were teaching the Plan of Salvation and talking about our life on earth and how we need to have faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receive the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end. His parents were watching TV in another room with the volume turned up pretty loud, he went to shut the door then came back "My parents are definitely going to hell" hahaha.
That interfaith gathering was super interesting, it's cool to hear what other faiths believe. They definitely do have truths, it definitely strengthened my testimony even more that we truly do have the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ! I am so grateful for at knowlege and belief!
We also had zone training this week! It was great, learned about working more with members! This ward is seriously so great and so willing to help! I love them!
There is a less active member who Sister Maya and I had tried a few times and she had never really let us in. This week Sister Nelson and I went over and she let us right in and was even asking for us to share a message! Hearts are being softened!
That was my week! Hope you all had a great week! Love you all! Feel free to email me or even a good ol snail mail is always appreciated!  Jessica.oliver@myldsmail.net and 
 306 Sherbrook Ct. Wexford, PA 15090!

4-4-16

Elder Schofeild, Sister Nelson, me, Sis Huffaker, Sis Wayman, Elder Cahoon after watch conference
 
Me and Finn, this kid is so cute! Our ward mission leaders son. :)

So we watched conference different places for Each session, but one of the families we watched with had this cute board!!!