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!