January 27, 2014

I HAVE DANDRUFF!!! CALL ME DANDRUFF DANNY!!! Ahhh can you believe that I have dandruff!!  I can’t get rid of it-- I don’t know how!!! I count my blessings that it isn’t lice but seriously I just about died when Sister Angela told me! Anyways enough for my freak out-- Wow what a great week you all had!!!  I really do miss you all so much and your letters mean the world to me!! Sometimes the weeks go by so fast that I forget what it is like not being a missionary! But I am always reminded of my amazing family that I have back at home and I remember that we have a home that is beautiful with a shower that works and a clean uncluttered kitchen! Well anyways I just am so grateful for everything that I have been given and yes we are very blessed out here as missionaries but there are a few things that I appreciate in Arizona! Mom, my beach cruiser is perfect I love it!! We ride bikes a lot and it makes it enjoyable!! As for the almond milk I love it and it makes me feel a lot better! I am going off diet coke again and we are starting to drink half our body weight in water!  The temple sounds amazing and I am so excited for Chantz and Kenzi! Please send me the engagement pictures because I know that I could probably find them on Fb somewhere and it is a struggle everyday not to look! hahah   I am just  really excited for them! It sounds like y'all have been super busy and that is great! I love being busy it makes everyday more enjoyable! Sometimes we get through planning at night and realize we forgot to put in lunch! haha  The days get crazy but I count my blessings that Pembroke is busy!  

Well this week has been so good!! We have been working with Leslie and she is coming along great! She loves to read and meets with us about every other day! We are meeting with Angelique as well.  We don’t hear from Stefanie any more but Angelique and her mom don’t get along so we have been working with her and she is so fun!! At first she was really hard to work with because she is black and she acts like she is going to beat us up every time we teach her but then on Friday we had dinner with her at Brother Goodman’s and she opened up!!! It was perfect! I don’t know how it happened but I know the Spirit works miracles! It also helped that we were all just about dying because we had goat, or the fact that Brother Goodman asked me to dye his hair and that was really funny but I did it!  It was such a great night! Plus I love Brother Goodman and Sister Mary-- they are definitely some of my favorite people here and it will be hard to say goodbye to them.  Since I have been here, I have been able to see them grow so much and I love spending time over there! Then Angelique came to church and she likes it! We keep meeting with her and seeing the change of her heart has been one of my favorite experiences out here! I love Angelique! Last night we taught her about the Atonement and she  told us that some things have happened that she doesn’t think she can be forgiven for.  She used to be in a gang, but being able to explain to her the peace and happiness that comes from having a hope for something better in this life and letting her know that she can feel that burden lifted off her shoulders was one for the books.  The spirit was so strong and I couldn’t help but be reminded of how merciful our Savior is.  He is our Mediator and through Him we can be forgiven for anything that we have done when we ask for forgiveness. We had a member with us who was just recently re-baptized after being excommunicated and her testimony was so strong! Other than that-- this week has been filled with everything that is great about missionary work!  Oh I almost forgot-- we were teaching this family and all of a sudden this huge spider came down it's web right onto the mom’s shoulder... I died and Sister Cowley calmly says,  “Um there is a spider on your shoulder.”  The mom gets up and says that rascal and claps the spider right in her hands and kills it!! haha She just acts like it is nothing and goes and washes the guts off... you think I am joking... we had to try so hard not to laugh.   There are just so many things that happen that when  Sister Cowley and I get home we laugh so hard!! Oh like a couple weeks ago-- remember I told you about that big man who got mad at me for saying the church is perfect... ok well we had dinner with them and he fed us meat that was still mooing! It was sooooo nasty! He asked Sister Cowley how she likes her meat and she just politely says,  “um that’s good.”  He had already stared cutting it and the blood was just squishing out... so that happened and then we went back over there last night and he had his dog eat a piece of meat out of his mouth!!  This man looks like Dumbledore mixed with Mad-eye Moody. He had to part his long gray hair from his eyes in order for the dog to find the meat!! It was so nasty!!   I had to hold my breath not to laugh! It was too good! But yeah other than all of that I hope you have the best week! You are the best family I could ever ask for and I am so grateful for you!!

Love always and forever

Sister Oliver