June 16, 2014

Thanks for always writing me, you really do always know how to cheer me up! I am grateful to have such a wonderful family back at home! As Vernetta says about her rain cap--“You are my pride and joy!”   She is black so you know she never gets her hair wet other than when she gets baptized!!! haha Her baptism went great and I am so blessed to know her! She has taught me so much and going through everything with her has had such an eternal impact on my life!
This week-- where to even begin... So we have been doing a whole lot of cleaning all week! Sis Wilde is opening Pittsborough tomorrow for Sisters so we had to clean an old Elders apartment.  I  have never seen anything so gross!!  It was sick... but we made it super cute after 4 hours of scrubbing every wall.  I honestly think they had a spaghetti war in there!  What was crazy was how different the Spirit was when we left--sorry to be all Sister missionary but it really was crazy!!! So we have cleaned and then I got super sick... I don’t know what happened.  I think I got food poisoning but I threw up all Tuesday night and then the next morning we went on exchanges.  Luckily I went with my best friend out here, her name is Sister Bowers and the crazy thing is-- I know her from somewhere I just don’t know where.  We both always say this, but we know that we were friends in Heaven! I feel like I have known her my whole life! I love her so much!  So we went on exchange and had a great day! Then Elder Corbridge came to tour the mission. He was so great! He talked a lot about our weaknesses, and where our focus is.  This past transfer has been literally crazy and I have been seeing so many of my weaknesses.  I had been feeling a little discouraged until he came and spoke to us.  He talked about how our weaknesses bring us closer to Christ and how our struggles become blessings through the Atonement of Jesus Christ! We all have the choice to look at our weaknesses from Satan’s view or from Heavenly Fathers view, so which are we going to choose?  We can wallow in self pity and struggle or we can see them as a way to rely on our Savior and become stronger by overcoming our challenges! I am so grateful that we have the opportunity to grow in this life and to become stronger! Along with that-- when we got home from the meeting we went to check Facebook and Sister Fullmer saw that one of her family members had passed away. Honestly,  I can’t think of another thing that could happen this transfer to the three of us. They have started making jokes about how President is just praying that transfers come sooner because we have such bad luck! But all in all I know that I have seen Heavenly Fathers hand in my life more this transfer than ever before.  I have seen Him change Vernetta’s heart and answer so many of her prayers.  I have seen Him give Sister Fullmer and I the strength to endure and the enabling power of the Atonement work on Sister Wilde.  I have seen how He has blessed both Sister Wilde and I with charity for one another, I won’t tell you we don’t argue but there is always an end to the argument that usually brings us closer.  I have been able to see my testimony of the Book of Mormon change and there have been countless times when I have been able to relate to the stories in the Book of Mormon.  But most of all I have realized that I needed to come on a mission to understand my Heavenly Fathers love for me. As it was Father’s Day-- I thought about how much I was missing all of you and mostly dad.  I thought about how I know that dad loves me and how I can always talk to him about things.  I thought about how much it hurts mom and dad when we struggle and how they both always want to take our struggles away. I know that our Heavenly Father loves us and that He sent us here so that we can learn and understand His love for us. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. He is my Lord and I will follow Him until that day when we are with Him again. I am grateful to know that I am never alone and that even on the hardest day out here-- that there is no way I will ever quit if I fully trust Christ. I know that this is the true church and that the Book of Mormon is our blue print in this life. I am so grateful to have the Spirit that reminds me of my family and the support that you each show to me. I have started quoting the Mormon messages out here because we watch them so much but my favorite one says "The Lord has promised us angels on our left and on our right to bear us up and He always keeps His word." I know that is true.  I know that we are never alone and I hope each of you know how much I love you.  I hope you know that you are always in my prayers! I love you so much and am so grateful for each of your examples to me! You are my greatest blessings! I love you and hope you have the best week!!

Love forever and always

 Cass

ps transfers are tomorrow and yes I am losing both... I am training! Wish me luck! 

pps Joey is a quadriplegic and he is an investigator-- he is seriously the best!! We love him!! Oh and the K’s are still moving along-- they are stubborn but the good word will get to them soon enough! 

June 9, 2014

I don't know how this keeps happening--me getting so far behind!!

It literally has been the craziest week in the world and I don’t even know where to begin but I will start by telling you how much I love you guys!   As for the camera card sounds good I would love that! As for summers here, they aren’t too bad yet.  I hear next month will get crazy!!!    As for now it is just really really humid and sweaty!!!  Transfers are next week and I will be staying and training here in Chapel Hill. We still have a car but I am forcing my comp to bike as much as possible!! I love biking!! Well anyways--

This week where to even begin... well I guess I will start by telling you that Sister Wilde has a disorder called conversion disorder.  What that is--she has seizures and is awake for the whole thing and they last for about 3 hours.  So this week started out with Sister Wilde waking up on Tuesday and she couldn’t stay awake.  We didn’t know what was wrong with her but we told her to lie down.  Then we went and did service and Sister Wilde was so weak that she couldn’t stand up.   She also had bruises all over her body so we called the Mission President and he told us to let her sleep until she had more strength. Well that day was really long and Sister Fullmer and I got real close that day!! ps I LOVE SISTER FULLMER she is such a tender mercy to me and I feel that we will be friends for the rest of our lives! Heavenly Father sent her to me!! haha  But anyways,  so we wake up on Wednesday and go to our district meeting.  Sister Wilde still wasn’t feeling good but she pushed herself to go.   When we got in the room Sister Wilde was shaking uncontrollably-- it was really scary so I took her into the other room and grabbed my district leader.  Well she was sweating profusely and we had to hold her in the chair for the blessing.  She had told me all about this before and she told me it hurts worse if you try to hold her down so I did my best to hold her in the chair while Sister Fullmer grabbed the car.  Let me tell you-- that blessing was one of the most amazing experiences, the Spirit was so strong! The Elders carried her to the car and we called the doctor.   She has been to the hospital before for this and there is nothing they can do so she just has to endure it.  So we took her home--well we live up stairs... you know how in my blessing it says that I have done many things that will prepare me for my mission... well I wondered about that until now. I was able to put my cheer skills to use! haha I think this might be the only chance I ever get but we got her up the stairs and had to get her clothes off and help her to get comfortable.  Take into consideration, she is seizing this whole time to the point where her neck looks like it is going to break. At this point all I can say is the Atonement is real and when you need strength from the Lord all you have to do is pray! Well we got her settled and the seizing stopped after about 3 hours. The whole time through everything,  Sister Wilde just wanted us to tell her funny jokes and make her laugh.  She said that it helps if we just talk to her and keep her mind occupied. Well I will tell you one thing, that  was probably one of the hardest things that I have had to do-- to just sit and watch as she goes through so much pain and there was really nothing that we could do to help her but talk to her. She was so positive through everything and I have learned so much from her. Well this happened again later that day and went on for about 2 hours.   We went to the doctor and had some blood work done but then the rest of the week we were apartment bound.  To give you a feeling-- squeeze every bone in your body as tight as you can... then shake like you are trying to dance while squeezing every muscle and then do that for 3 hours... well you get the point... she was super sore and tired. She is such a trooper though and fought every day to get out and work! I am so grateful for her motivation! Well then-- other than all this, Vernettas baptism is this week! We met with her last night and she is doing great! She has had such a change of heart and it is amazing to see the Gospel make bad men good and good men better! She is the best! We also went to UNC hospital this week to see Joey our investigator! He is doing great and getting better! Oh and the K family from Rwanda is getting baptized next week!! We are pumped! They are all so amazing!! I am so grateful that you were all able to see how golden some people are and that the Gospel just makes them even better. There are so many out there that are being prepared! I know that this is the Lords work and that we can be a part of the blessings that are in it!! I am grateful for the Atonement and that we will all live in Heaven again with perfect bodies! I hope you all know how much I love you and how much I miss you! You are the best family!!

Love forever

Sister Oliver

Cass

April 28, 2014

Family,

I have missed you!!  As for everything that went on this week-- holy crazy!! I know that you had to of just been dying!!! I have realized one thing though... I am not a very clean person... ooopss!! So this week’s goal was actually to try to be more clean. It is a work in progress but Sis Wilde is really clean so I will learn! Oh and I made spaghetti this week!! It was so good!! As for the  questions... my comp, Sister Wilde is great!! We get along really well and no she is not like Elder Clark.  She is really sweet-- we still argue a little but that happens with every companion so to say the least I really like Sister Wilde and we have a lot of fun together!! She is doing really well.  She leaves in three transfers so I think we will end her mission together.  She is great though; I learn so much from her everyday! As for Gladys Knight, she was here all weekend!!! It has really been the most amazing weekend ever! Something that I will cherish forever!!  I am so grateful that I was one of the missionaries who got to serve at all 4 firesides!  Let me tell you it was soooooooo amazing! The first one started off great and they just kept getting better and better!! Her husband came to 2 and they would both bear their testimonies!! They are so powerful!! To give you a visual you know that song that we sang in music camp where we had to make all the weird noises like bamb... bamb... bamb bamb and Jacque had her part in the beginning... yeah well that was what it was like!!! We were all shouting amens and dancing!! It was soo fun and really funny! I will have to tell you more in person but lets just say I have never felt the Spirit that way but it was so strong!! I am so grateful for all the different cultures that we have in this church! It truly is amazing! We also became really close with the choir and so it has been a rough morning because it feels like the end of a dance concert! I am so sad it is over but we are now on to do bigger and better things with all those Baptist folks!! As for the rest of the week, we had an amazing experience! One of our recent converts named Kwee is from a place around Tailand and she speaks Karen not Koran but Karen it is like Burmese but it is a little different and all the Karen people are flooding to America because there is a genocide going on in their country right now. So Kwee introduced us to her friend Lah Say Ku and her family! They are amazing and they don’t understand anything we say!! The church doesn’t have Karen yet-- they are working on it but we are so blessed because Kwee translates everything for us!! We had our first lesson and it was one of the most powerful things that I have been a part of! Even though we had no idea what Kwee was saying, she would tell us and help them to understand what we were teaching.  We had to teach super simple and just focus on the feeling in the room. The Spirit was so strong! Kwee bore her testimony at the end and the family is so excited to learn!! They truly are a miracle! Oh I almost forgot Kwee is only 17 and she just joined a little while ago! She told us that she wants to serve so that she can bring the Gospel to her people and help them to know the truth!! On top of all of this we went to the temple on Friday and as you all know that is my absolute favorite place to be! The Raleigh Temple is little but beautiful! Being there with a bunch of missionaries is a whole new and wonderful experience! I am so grateful for our temples! It has been a crazy week and we really should get some sleep today but we are going to tour around UNC!! Go Tarheels! hahah It should be fun! I miss you all so much and hope you have the greatest week!! Girls--Mom told me a bit about the competition and I can only imagine how great you all are! I am jealous! My companion Sister Wilde dances and she was going to go to college for it! I always talk about how good y’all are!! Keep on keeping on!! Clay, Makelle told me that her mom said y’all have kept up the tradition of the friendship wall!!! It is the best-- right!! I hope all is going well! Oh and I was reading in Alma 26 this week and thought of you! If you get a chance-- read it! It is the best! Honestly the greatest place to find what a mission is truly like!! I feel like I can read it everyday and something else stands out to me where I am like "oh my gosh this is me everyday!" As for everyone else, I hope Chelsey has a great birthday.  I love you all and miss you so much!! I hope you have the best week! 

Love forever 

Cass

April 14, 2014

Well family!!! 

I miss all of you so much and love hearing from you!! You all have such great testimonies and I am so proud to call you my family!! Wow!!  It sounded like you had such an amazing week!!  Carlee I miss One Tree Hill as well! Did you know that it was filmed here! I am pretty sure North Carolina is the most beautiful place I have ever been to! The city is amazing and everything is beginning to bloom! It truly makes it so great to wake up each morning to beautiful colors and birds everywhere!! Oh and here in Chapel Hill everyone is out running and riding bikes!! It makes me a bit jealous but then we get to go out and jump on the buses and walk around and talk to all of them so I really love it!! There are lots of people to teach and to be honest I don’t think I have ever been so busy!! Every morning we wake up and have a day planned and it goes nothing like what we plan but we are always running everywhere and time just seems to fly!! Everyone always says Chapel Hill is just crazy and it is so true!! But I love it!! As for cooking... lately we have been in a lot more member homes! The members really seem to be opening up to us, which has been a blessing, but I have learned to cook!! We have a store called Aldis that has super cheap food and I make spaghetti and eggs and oatmeal and cooked vegetables and all that jazz!! I have gotten a lot better! One of the members gave me a hot pad because Sister Wilde told her how I burnt my fingers on my oatmeal bowl that morning and spilt it all over the apartment so I am getting there!! haha  These next weeks are going to be great but crazy!! We have Easter this week and I am so excited! I have been reading Jesus the Christ and it really explains Christ life so well!! I have learned so much! I would recommend it to all of you if you want to study the last week of the Saviors life!! Also the Ensign has a really great depiction of it as well!! Other than that we have our temple trip the next week and Gladys Knight comes that weekend!! I might be a bit worn out but I am too excited!! This is truly going to be amazing!! They are taking the pews out of our church building so that more people can fit!! They said in California they had 150 people baptized after she came!! It is really going to be a miracle!!! As for Easter what color are y'all wearing I want to match!!! Sister Wilde and I are going to match with our ward mission leaders wife.  She is like our mom out here and I love her so much!! She is from England and has two sons out serving and one is with Christiaan hahah small world!  They are the best and she calls people twits and says the rubbish can and all that stuff!!  Anyways I hope you all have the best week and know how much I love you!! Please don’t give up on your missionary work! I know that it can be discouraging but just remember how important our family is to you and remember that if we don’t share what blessing the Gospel is to us then they may never have it! Oh and something else that helps-- on average people hear about the gospel 7 times so just be happy if you are one of the 7!!! Cami! I look up to how brave you are with Samantha! I wish that I had had the courage with some of my friends back at home!! I love you all and hope you have the best Easter!!

Love Always,

Cass