6-6-16

 Sister Nelson is the best and decked
out our apartment, filled up 70 balloons, and made a cake! She is so sweet!

 The members that fed us also got a cake, super cute, so much
cake, so good!

 Tight fit for the Elder's in the back

Some pretty big days this week, I had a birthday and turned 21, and 18
months of being on the mission! Sister Nelson is the best and decked
out our apartment, filled up 70 balloons, and made a cake! She is so
sweet! The members that fed us also got a cake, super cute, so much
cake, so good! I am also at that awkward point of my mission where
people ask how long I have been out and I can say 18 months and people
are real confused cause they think I should be home, nope! I'm so glad
I have the extra 3 weeks onto that though, I love being missionary!

We had an awesome district meeting this week on using our talents and
abilities to bless the lives of others. We all listed 3 things we are
good at and talked about how we can use those things in our missionary
work. We can't hide our talents under a bushel!

We saw a few people this week, but one of the lessons that really
stood out is our lesson with Bryan. So Sister Nelson and I are really
good at being awkward sometimes.. Well as usual we were super awkward,
but we were also teaching the Law of Chastity, BUT we had the best
team up ever! We had brother Witzel with us, and he was so bold, and
has such a strong testimony, I am so grateful he was there and
definitely made the difference in that lesson! I encourage you to go
out with the missionaries if you are able, or even have them in your
home, whether it be feeding them, or for a gospel discussion!

So I have come to the realization that I am terrible at small talk. I
have gained a deeper testimony and I am more capable of talking about
the gospel, but when It comes to talking about anything else... I
don't even know!

This week on MyPlan... Sister Oliver made some life decisions, and
learned how to be self reliant and having faith in the Lord to do so!
Coming up next week... Dating and temple marriage... 😳

In Relief Society this week we had an awesome lesson on gratitude and
being grateful for everything happening in our lives every day. It was
such a great lesson, and I'm grateful that I was able to feel that
motivation to look more for the good around me! Our Heavenly Father
sends tender mercies every single day, but we need to look for and
recognize them, and give thanks!

5-30-16

 Our Mission Song

After a year and a half of wearing every day, it broke, it's all good though, I super glued it together so it can last this last month!

 Dinner with Olivia and her family :)

 Woke up to this on my desk :)

 We went to a 3 year old little girls birthday party from our ward, her dad had all his family there, so it was a great missionary opportunity!

 Love this quote, heard it in the MTC, I know that I have certainly learned more about the Atonement while on my mission!

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Alright, so I'll just jump right into the people we saw!

We got to see Olivia 3 times this week! She took us out for lunch, we had dinner at her house with the Elders there as well (it was funny how excited she got to meet "the trio"), and our regular Thursday lesson. Her husband even showed some interest and apparently was talking about the visit for 2 hours after we left!

It was a strange week, we had a lot of set appointments for mornings so we didn't get to have companionship study as much as usual, but it felt good to get out and going with our day so early and keep it going through the day! 

Again this week we were able to see quite a few less active members that we haven't seen in a while! We were able to see Brother Ferrari, he is such a sweet guy, and we are going to get to go do service for him cleaning out his garage! He is so sweet though, as we were walking away he gave us an "I love you" sign and seemed excited for us to come back to do service (don't worry, he is like our grandpa!)

We also saw Sister Curtis, man that lady has a lot she is going through, with basically running a nursing home and a psych ward in her own home. She is so strong and has been through so much. But she also is super interested in Family History, so we focused on that! She has so many cool stories!

Then we saw Sister Watt, hahah it's awesome, she just KNOWS we are going to ask her about her reading and jump right into telling us how that was going.

We got to do a lot of Service! We did service for the Kigins, Fentons, Goodwill, or neighbor Lynn, etc... Love just feeling totally exhausted after a day of hard work.

THis week it has been super hot and humid, it's terrible, I'm grateful for AC :)

Terrifying thinking of going home, I don't know how to not be a missionary, It seems almost like that make it or break it moment, you either take the things you learned and continue to progress, or go back to old ways. I know that the Atonement can work for all of us, and we can all continue to learn and grow, I look forward to applying these things!

MyPlan, I made plans for how to "continue discipleship". I got all signed up for institute when I get home, made plans for study, prayer and church. Made plans to regularly go to the temple, and let me tell you, it is such a blessing that I have never really taken advantage of, having so many temples in Utah so close!

During the Sacrament I was reading hymns to stay more focused on Christ, it was great, I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and the knowledge that I have that he died for me!

Hope you all have a wonderful week! This is a shorter weekly, sorry, but hey I can just talk to you all and tell you the stories in person soon :)

5-23-16

 Pitt North zone!

 Sister Talbots posterity :) she trained Sister Bartlett and I (we are in the middle) and we both trained :)

 Zone :)

Love how green it is!

Saw Pittsburgh on the way back on exchanges

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It's all just so surreal. I go from moments of being so into the work that I think I've got another 5 years and would love it, and other moments I'm super excited for the adventures ahead when I'm back home. I don't know how 18 months can come and go so quickly. I only have one month, but my determination to serve the Lord is stronger than ever. I know that I still have work to do, and there is no way I am slowing down now when I'm almost to the finish line! I love my Savior Jesus Christ, His gospel, and the opportunity that I have to serve HIS mission!

It's was a pretty frustrating beginning of the week, with that determination to work hard I didn't feel like we are accomplishing all that was in store, and our companionship unity was not it its best. I had been praying a lot about it all, on Friday morning we weren't talking much, and I knew we would not be able to plan by the spirit for our week if the contention continued, so I mustered up the courage to talk about it, I just tried to show as much love as I could and listen. Then everything changed, we were able to have probably one of the better planning seasons I have ever had, we were able to get a lot more done, see more people, feel the spirit more, and work together! I KNOW that through Christ all things are possible, it just takes that leap of faith in trusting him, which we have to do EVERY DAY as missionaries!

I got a Letter this week from my home ward bishop, it was a very sweet letter, but one part especially stood out to me that I want to share with all of you! "Even if you have a bad experience for 5-10 minutes-let it last that long- don't let that bad 5-10 minutes ruin your whole day. The other 23 hours and 50 minutes were pretty great! Honor the good times, don't let a bad few minutes wreck of a valuable day in the service of the Lord!" I just loved this, it's not worth it to dwell on bad experiences!

We had Zone training this week (my last one ). My determination to finish strong was definitely renewed as we learned of the importance of the Book of Mormon, I just want to share that Book with everyone! I know that it can change anyone's life if we are willing to sincerely read, ponder, and ask, with real intent, because I have done so time and time again and I KNOW it is true! I know that it helps us to come closer to our Savior, Jesus Christ which is the foundation of everything we believe! President and Sister Johnson were there as well, they taught about scriptures that give us "strength beyond our own", and how we need to develop helpful habits and righteous routines. It was a super great training. Afterwards we did a zone activity, it was supposed to be a water ballon fight, well that lasted about 5 minutes, so we then played ultimate frisbee and war ball. There were 2 ducks at the park we were at, well Elders being 18-20 year old boys do dumb things sometimes, some of them decided it would be a good idea to catch the ducks. One of the elders caught one by the foot, another caught one and the other duck ran away. He let the duck down and the ducks were trying to find eachother, I'm telling you, who needs movies, this was the sweetest chick-flick ever as they found their way back to eachother across the park! But best of all we ended off with a zone testimony meeting. The spirit was so strong as we all bore testimony of how we came to know that The Book Of Mormon is true. Though we all have different stories, we all know it is true, and that is why we are out here to share it with the  people of Pennsylvania!

We got to go on Exchanges this week! Lots of lasts for me this week...So sad. But exchanges were AWESOME! I got to go with Sister Taunima to Pitt 3. It's funny because we went on exchanges when I was her STL and I was at the same point in my mission as she is now! We stayed up way to late talking, I just love that girl! She is such a great missionary, she is a great example of following the little promptings from the spirit. We were able to tract into a super awesome lady named Janet, she was just so prepared for the gospel and seemed so excited to start reading the Book of Mormon! I definitely learned a lot on the exchange, and again it gave me that extra boost of motivation to get back to Wexford, be a better example to Sister Nelson, and for us to work our butts off!

I love Olivia, she is so great! I am grateful that we have been able to gain a friendship with her, she is taking out for lunch today, and she even said she would fly me back out to Pittsburgh after my mission hahaha. So this week as we were teaching her we were actually able to answer some of her questions! She got the toughest questions ever, but I am SO grateful the spirit was there for us to be able to help her receive some of the answers!

So now for a funny/sad/scary story. So the other day we were driving to visit a less active member, we realized we needed to turn around because we had passed the house, well we drove over the curb and grass a tiny bit, then proceeded to the house. Well apparently the guy that lives in the house saw that happen and came out and down the street yelling and swearing at us for "driving all the way into his lawn", the less active member happened to be outside and knew that this neighbor liked to cause ruckus in the neighborhood so she called the cops before he had the chance to because apparently he has done so 121 times in the past year.. But everything is fine, the grass is fine, the guy still needs the gospel in his life but he is fine. Now it's another one of those stories to tell from the mission..

There was a day this week that I was Not feeling it. It was a gloomy day, one of those days you just wanna curl up and sleep. Well of course we have to get out and share the gospel, so we went out! But it was a great day! We were able to see 2 less active members we hadn't ever met before and share a message with them!

Well it's my last transfer, I suppose it's alright to write some "trunky" thoughts in my weekly email.. So update on MyPlan, it's super great, definitely gets me thinking about life and how I'm going to take everything that I have learned on my mission and actually apply it into my life after the mission. This week I made a One year plan for my life, and this week I have started setting goals for continued discipleship, how I can continue to serve! Haha so Sister Nelson has decided to create her own lessons for me to be prepared to go back into the real world.. Most of them are eternal marriage talks though. Haha she's hilarious. I also got my "trunky papers" this week, aka my flight plans, so weird.

Missions change lives, I would never trade this experience for anything. The changes of Sister Oliver that I realized this week, I would have never volunteered to teach or speak or even say a comment for that matter at church. Well I asked to give a homecoming talk (though I know nobody from my home ward due to my family moving), I was totally ok with volunteering to teach Sunday school next week, and I don't even know how often I comment in lessons... I love how through Christ all things are possible, he can help us to be the people HE needs us to be!

5-16-16

 

Our cool matching shirts

 District pics before transfers

 Elders fitting in the back seat of the car.

 Dinner with the Jenkins :)

 Hahaha so Ty is the funniest kids, he kept looking over at the the whole evening and copying everything that I would do :) then as we walked back to our car he only said "Bye Sister Oliver!"
(He's the kid in red :) )

Me in Bishops jag... No big deal...

--------------

Well.. Another one bites the dust, now I only have 2 companions on the mission, Sister Smith went home this past week. It's crazy to think that the group that I came out with is now the oldest sisters in the mission!

It's so weird to think that transfers happen when we aren't directly affected but I'm excited to be here in Wexford still! We are just continuing on with the work here, but so many changes are made! Our whole district basically changed, so the elders in our ward got another one so now they are in a trio (real funny to try to see the 3 of them try to squish into the back seat of our Toyota Corolla), and then they basically doubled in both sets of missionaries in the Cranberry ward (one of the sisters was there for a week before the transfer).

So this week I got to start MyPlan, which is a program for missionaries in their last transfer, doing a different hour long course/activity every week. This whole real life thing is getting way more real, and I'm not sure I'm ready for it, but it's coming! But I didn't really know what "trunky" really meant until now. So many people asking me what my plan is for my life, which people ask all missionaries anyways, but the question comes along more frequently when you hit the last transfer. What the heck, I only have 5 1/2 weeks! One of the ladies in our ward who served a mission and I were having this trunky talk and she was telling me all about the last transfer of her mission and going home struggles, oh boy. Why can't I just be a missionary forever?! Haha 

Our New ward mission leader is great, and so willing to work with us, which is a great blessing since the last one was also so great! So one of the elders had a thought to change the mindset of member missionary work, the goal is to help the members with their missionary work, we go out with them, rather than them only coming out with us, which is definitely the way it should be, we are here for the members! I'm excited to see the results!

We found So many bugs while weeding, Pennsylvania has way more bugs than Utah and they are weird! We saw spiders, worms, Grubbs, slugs, and many many more random kinds of bugs.

We had a lesson with a Less active member named Les. It was so sweet, he got emotional while watching a music video for "I'm trying to Be Like Jesus" and he just bore his testimony of the power that video brought, it was so great!

Olivia is definitely chugging along with her Book Of Mormon reading, she was in 3 Nephi 15, probably done by now!

Service softened the heart everyone! So one of our neighbors wasn't a huge fan of us for a bit, she is very religious and didn't really like that we wanted to share the gospel with her. One day we were walking on past her house and we asked if there was anything that we could do to help her and she was needing to go through some things in her attic so we were able to help! By the end of that we were all having a great time together and then she brought us out to eat this week!

There is a New family in our ward that we were able to help move in this week and there was a great turn out at the move! The whole bishopric, the Elders quorum president, ward mission leader, all 5 missionaries in the ward, and a few more! It was also So organized! We Got it all unloaded in 45 minutes!

I finished the Book Of Mormon yesterday! I know that the Book of Mormon is true, As I read it over and over again my knowledge of that truthfulness continues to grow! I am Now starting again looking for how it testifies of Christ by marking when it mentions his name, his attributes, words of Christ, and his doctrine! Even just starting today Reading even the first chapter, I have been able to find so much!!! I love the Book of Mormon! 

Love you all! Have a wonderful week!

5-9-16

Got a couple pictures with people in case I get transferred.

RJ and his dog Cuddles :)

 Brother Stedeford

 I gave Sister Nelson a makeover this week :)

 That's my daughter!

 Elders, Brother Kraus, Davey, Brother Lubin and us out for dinner :)

 Skyping the family :)

17 months, man I thought that sounded like a really long time, especially 1,2,3 months out.. How wrong that was! Time has gone by in the blink of an eye! This week I hit 17 months!

Vikram: On Monday evening we were able to meet with him and Brother Kraus was the team up! We went over the baptismal interview questions. When we were over there it all started out really great... Then the lesson took a bit of a turn, he decided to ask some pretty tough questions, and totally changed his attitude, so him and brother Kraus were conversing about the questions and Sister Nelson and I would chime in every once in a while, but we were kinda stressing out.. And then at the end he said "just kidding, I'm just really excited for  this whole process!".

Then on Friday we met with him again, he wanted to know more about the 

Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, so we taught him a bit more about those and it was going pretty good, then we gave him a tithing pamphlet to read for the next lesson, he started flipping through and did not agree with tithing and wouldn't let us tell him more about it and the blessings, and he decided he didn't want to meet with us anymore.. It was a bummer! Well then on Sunday we got a call from a random number that we missed, so they texted asking if we could meet tomorrow, we asked who it was and got a very colorful response so we let it go. Then later we got a call from the same number, we answered and it was Vikram telling us he had a gift for us but was just being really weird.. Needless to say we will not be getting those gifts, nor will we be meeting with him anymore.. So sad to see the adversary working in so many hearts, but it is also so sweet and wonderful to see the Lord work in so many others!

So usually whenever we go to the library to do family history we go into the bookstore to get a little snack and the SWEETEST lady is always there! She calls us "the kids" and was bragging to another lady that works there of how we are from and organization and how she loves us. She always gives us a great deal on the snacks. I just love people like her! I am grateful that we can all love one another as Christ loves, PURE love, and this lady definitely emulates that!

ThIs week a scripture that I loved is Luke 1:37 For with God, nothing shall be impossible. SO TRUE!

So we found out about transfers this week aaaaand.... I'm dying in Wexford! Sister Nelson and I are staying together for another transfer, so I will be ending my mission here! Crazy that I only have 6 weeks left!

A bitter sweet moment this week, we got a new Relief Society presidency and a new ward mission leader. I am grateful for the time we have had to serve with Brother Kigin as our ward mission leader, and I also look forward to serving wig Brother Stewart as our new ward mission leader!

Hope you all had a wonderful Mothers Day! Mine was wonderful, I am so grateful for my mother! She is the most AMAZING example! It was great getting to Skype home, I love my family!

Love you all, have a wonderful week, and just remember how much your Heavenly Father loves you!!!

5-2-16

 Sister Wayman and Huffaker :)

 We went running in the rain :)

 Heart attacking :)

 Text from Sister Johnson (our mission presidents wife) after talking about Vikram, #beginwithendinmind! It was for sure all him though, so prepared!

  This place has great little donuts :)

 Feet after planting trees, this is just what got into my socks..

Lots of missionaries after church with the Pitt 4 elders investigator, Heather :)

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This has been such a great week! Ah So many tender mercies!

So we will start out with the not as great part... We have been under

attack... We have had a Spider invasion!! We have found way to many spiders around our apartment. I was totally fine with the short/no winter thing until I realized I would have to deal with more bugs and spiders! So just in this past week, I decided to be kind and was Saving a spider by catching it and putting it outside, well that was a fail... They spider jumped to the ground, ran away, never to be seen again.. Until we came in from running one morning and a spider jumping on Sister Nelsons head! So us and these spiders, we've gotten real close, we like to think we have trained them, cause one of them was on the ceiling right above my desk and I was not ok with that so I was cheering it on, telling it to move, and it did! So we decided to name the spider Freddy, well we lured it just enough for it to be low enough and we smashed it :) dumb spiders.. Why are there SO MANY?!

We had a dinner appointment and the member decided it would be fun to role play the whole time with really deep doctrine tough questions. It was definitely a very humbling experience as I know that I do not know everything (obviously) but I got so stuck on some of here questions! I swear I was getting the toughest ones! It definitely helped me to gain an appreciation of the basics even more, they are so important in being able to gain a sure foundation!

This week we went Heart attacking! It was so fun anonymously showing people our love! Some people found out it was us, and it was so sweet seeing the reactions, show people your love everyone!

Bryan said he would be baptized! We have been inviting him to pray about it, and he usually says he will keep praying, but this week we talked to him about the Atonement, and about Baptism, he said that he has the desire to follow Christ and wants to be baptized!

Olivia is still searching for an answer. This week we read Joseph Smith History with her, hoping to answer a few of the questions that she has, at the end she said that she knows she needs to make the decision. She said we all have to decide whether or not Jesus Christ is real, and we all need to decide whether or not Joseph Smith really was a prophet! She has also been reading from the Book of Mormon and is already in Alma 42!!!

We went to ARP this week and the lady leading out the discussion shared a cool story from the Book of Mormon! She shared that even Moroni had hard times in Ether 12 we can see hat he was stuffing with feelings of inadequacy, but then in Moroni 10, the last chapter of the Book of Mormon, we can see that Grace has given him the strength to do all that he was commanded to do! His grace is sufficient!

In Ambridge (the elders area) they had a city clean up day, and we got to plant trees! I love getting out and working together with people from all different backgrounds, all come together to work hard! It was pretty fun too, don't think I had ever planted any trees before!

Alright so the biggest highlight this week was Vikram! So he is the one that got baptized into another faith a few weeks ago, but has still been meeting with us. This week we felt inspired to teach him about temples, as we were teaching he LOVED everything about temples! Then he asked how he could go to the temple and we told him that he would need to prepare to do so, including being baptized. Then he asked about his other baptism, and we explained to him that he would need to be rebaptized by someone holding the priesthood authority, enthusiastically he asked when he could get baptized!! So we set him with a date for May 14!! So excited for him!!! Then on Sunday we were waiting for him to come to church.. The meeting was starting and he hadn't come yet, so we texted him telling him that we saved a seat for him, he texted back saying "ok, could you also save a seat for my mom? Be there in 2 minutes"!!!! Sweet! So he also brought his mom to church with him!! So cool!

We find out about transfers this Saturday, I'm hoping I get to stay, but we shall see! Let you all know next week! I look forward to Skyping the Family this Sunday!!!

Spring is Here!

 I love PA!

 Vikram gave us these sweet gifts on our last visit to thank us for teaching him!

 Sister Huffaker, me, Nellybaby, and Sister Smith :)

Me and sister Smith :)

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!