March 3, 2013

Oh my goodness-- well this is the week!! My big brother is getting married!! Chantz and Kenzi I just want you to know how excited I am for you! I know that this it a wonderful time for both of you and I am so sad to miss it!   I know that the families out here need to be sealed just like you  will be and so I will keep you in my prayers! I love you both and know that this is part of Heavenly Fathers plan for the both of you!Wow!! what an amazing experience it sounds like y'all had at the cultural celebration! I know that the spirit had to have been there and I know that it is something that you will always remember! Remember the Spirit that was there and I know that you will always be reminded of the happiness that can come when we feel the Spirit!! I just feel like my heart has been so full lately and I know that the Spirit is the only one who can make us feel that way! Well as for this week-- it has been a crazy one! For your questions Mom-- I don’t know how long I will be in Pembroke. Hopefully another transfer after this one but I have no idea.  It is crazy to think that I am two transfers away from half my mission! The time honestly just flies! I wish it would stop but I know that the Lord has big plans for each of us and we just have to hop on the train and go along for the ride!! This week has been another great one as always! I have really come to learn so much more about myself! I always have the question in my head of why was it so important for me to serve a mission that Heavenly Father took no chances and said it straight out... I know that this is exactly where I need to be and I am so grateful for the chance that I have to serve! Everyone always says it is a great time to be a missionary and that is so true! The work is hastening so quickly and, truth be told, Heavenly Fathers work is going to get done either way-- it just is our choice if we want to be a part of those blessings or not! Now for a warning… there might be some of my friends from hair school at Chantz’s wedding and if you want you can let them know that I am coming for them when I get home!! hahaha (just kidding) That might be a little creepy!!  Honestly there is so much work to be done and I love being in the middle of it!! Well we are still meeting with Adriana and it is the best! She has her kids reading every night from the Book of Mormon and we didn’t even tell her to! She is so elect! This week we went on exchanges again and the new missionary came with me in Pembroke! You could tell how scared she was and it made me wonder if I was like that... I am pretty sure I was but I am glad that I have gotten over that phase! We went to Brother Lee’s to meet with Angelique and she ended up calling us and telling us she didn’t want to take the lessons anymore. Sister Cowley wasn’t with me and I was a tad worried that my disappointment would show but I have learned so much from Sister Cowley on being positive and I know that the Lord has a bigger plan than what we see right now! She will come around I know it! I know that she has felt the Spirit and that is the greatest part! The next morning we went to one of our former investigators house idk if you remember she was the one that told us we came to her in a dream... but anyways we had an amazing lesson and we were able to get three new investigators at her house! That doesn't even include the rest of her family!! They are all amazing and you can just see how it doesn't matter where people come from or  what circumstances they are in the Gospel is always for them! It always helps! We had a pretty great rest of the week I think I have pushed more cars out of the mud in the last month than I probably will ever do for the rest of my life! On Saturday we went to Fort Bragg (a military base) to stay the night with the sisters over there! We had a meeting in Apex the next morning so we wanted to cut down the early morning travel time a little bit.  We had  to sleep on the floor and as Sister Cowley and I were laying there we only had a pillow and a blanket and we look at each other and remember that these sisters had bed bugs a month ago!!!! They said they got rid of them but I guess we will see.   We checked today for bites but you never know!! As you can imagine I think I got about 3 hours of sleep that night but kind of a little miracle-- we were saying our prayers and their neighbors had their TV playing loud and as soon as I said please bless that they will turn their TV off or that we could fall asleep quickly it shut off! It was like a light switch!  Pretty amazing! Then the next morning all the Sister leaders and Zone leaders met with President and Sister Bernhisel, the temple presidency, all the stake presidencies and our Area Seventy  --Elder Parker! It was such an amazing meeting and a little scary!   Elder Parker  was the one who set the plan for the meeting and what was said was so inspiring! I am telling y'all the work is moving forward!! Our goal is to more than double our baptisms! Every missionary is suppose to baptize 6 people a year when it was 3.7 and even then that might not be good enough!! A huge goal for every companionship is 20 lessons a week! Sister Cowley and I usually hit 19 or 20 but we see so many miracles!! Everything depends on our members and that is you all!! We plan to ask our members to invite people over for dinners to pray for families and to do all they can to open their mouths! I know that this is what the Lord needs done!  There are so many blessings that are waiting!! I am so excited to go out and see what is waiting to happen! I hope y'all know how much I love you and what you mean to me!! I am so excited to have Kenzi in our family and I know that everything will go well!! I know that this church is true and that Heavenly Father is watching over each of us! 

Love forever and ever

Sister Oliver

ps. We are suppose to get a huge storm today! The weather is changing so quickly!  It is hot all of a sudden and they cancelled schools out here!! Hopefully we have a hurricane!! It’s gonna be nuts!! Oh and this one man that we taught this week had as all hold hands and get in a circle for a prayer and you could tell he was probably a preacher of some sort... well anyways, he starts praying and everyone is prayer talking shouting hallelujahs and all that jazz!  It was pretty funny!  I felt like they were gonna start dancing in a circle or something!

pps Oh yeah and I had oyster this week and gumbo soup! It was really good!

February 3, 2014

WOW Happy 25th!! I wrote it in my planner so don’t think I forgot!! You know I am always good for some candy to celebrate so there should be a package sooner or later. I won’t make it chocolate since it might get there late... but before I forget about Josh... I did get the news and although I am so sad that my sweet cousin passed I am so excited that he is with his Heavenly Father! Talking with Sister Angela helped a lot because she works with special needs adults and it makes her joyful when they leave! She told me she hopes Heavenly Father is saving one of them up in Heaven for her to marry when she gets there! hahahaha   She’s hilarious!  Anyways, what I remember about Josh is that he is a warrior! He is one of Heavenly Fathers most valiant servants and I am so lucky to be able to say, when I get to Heaven, that he is my cousin! That amazing servant of the Lord, yeah I am related to him! I always loved how he was unconditionally loving whenever I saw him and if I remember correctly there was one time when we went to the movies and he held my hand and called me his girlfriend! I will always be his girlfriend! I love Josh will all my heart and know that he is perfect! I imagine he is just up there being the best missionary around.Well wowwee wow wow! What a week!  Clay you look gooooodddd in those pictures you sent I hope you have so much fun at morp! I can’t believe it is already that time of year! Carlee-- wow efy will be so fun with Ashley and Cami and Chloe I am so jealous I missed seeing all of you dance!! You know how much I love a good competition!! I am sure you all did great!! As for mom and dad-- 25 years!! As Uncle Jesse would say,  “Have mercy!!” hahah Congrats! You are the best parents I could have asked for and I look up to your relationship! I hope someday I will be sealed to my best friend!!  Well as for being a sister leader-- I was just called on Saturday and a Sister leader is kind of like a zone leader but for the sisters.  We go on exchanges with all the sisters in our zone and we have to teach at all of our meetings, so like in front of President Bernhisel!! Yeah I am scared! I just hope I remember to say “neat” and “guys” haha!  But I know that the Lord and the Spirit are the real teachers so hopefully that enabling power kicks in right about now!  I know it will so it will be great! Sister Cowley is a great example to me! As for this week-- wow it has been a little bit of a weird week nonetheless a great week! Full of learning and growing! As for Brother Goodman, I don’t know if I told you-- I dyed his hair! haha I also took out Angelique’s hair this week.   She is black and had these braid things in so she asked me to take them out. It took about 30 minutes but it is  nice to serve her because that always brings us closer to people! Other than that she is coming along.   She has been coming to church and likes everything! We always have stumbling blocks and being out here in Pembroke I have just about had everything there is-- so let them come at me! Sister Cowley always says, “If you ever want to see what is in the world just come to Pembroke!” Honestly it all happens here--which is hard but it really opens my eyes. Angelique let us know last night that she has a girlfriend so we will be working with that this week.  I know that it is in the Lords hands so I am not too worried but I will let you know. As for everything else-- we met with Clement and he is doing great! He wears a shirt now to our lessons and always has great questions! (He is the millionaire!)  As for this week, we met with a less active whose name is Maryann. To put it in a short way, she told us about her upbringing and I don’t think in all of Pembroke that I have ever heard such a sad story.  I learned a lot about the atonement this week and the whole time in the lesson I kept looking at Sister Cowley and trying to figure out how best to meet her needs.  I try to relate to everyone out here but her situation was something that I have never even imagined.  As we listened all I could think was that Christ was the only one who could get on this level and however we answered would be directly from the Spirit. I am so grateful to be an instrument and to know that I have a Savior that died for me.  He knows what I feel at every moment and because I am on a mission I am able to feel the love that He has for these people.  I am able to remind them that they have a Heavenly Father who loves them and that they are children of God. I know that Heavenly Father is aware of each of His children and that He does not want to lose any of them. I know that we are given commandments so that we can find happiness and I am so grateful to bring the joyful news to those we meet! I love this work and I am so grateful to have a family back at home! I am so grateful that I will be with each of you for time and all eternity and I am truly grateful that I can return to my Heavenly Father someday.

So a side note it SNOWED this week!! And we were all out of miles so we walked everywhere that day!! I felt like I was in Canada! It was freezing! But it was a good experience! Oh and the next couple of days we couldn’t go on the streets because they were frozen. North Carolina doesn’t have the equipment for snow so school was cancelled all week! Crazy I know but it was way fun! Now it is blistering hot and I just about sweat all day! The weather is nuts out here but I love it! Anyways I love you all!! Love forever and always

Sister Oliver

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

January 20, 2014

I am so far behind again!!  I know this picture is a little blurry but I couldn't believe the size of the collards!!

Hola Familia! 

Haha I feel like I have to start it off like that!  Wow! What a week for yall!! It sounds like it was pretty good and a little rough! Well Cami I am so sorry you were sick on your birthday but I hope your party made up for it!! It sounds like it was a lot of fun! I can’t believe how fast time flies by either Mom!! I feel like it goes so fast! But I love it I guess that is all you really can do is love every moment! I am so excited for you to have a brand new Temple!! You know how much I love the Temple and I sure am jealous!!  I know it will be there when I get back! I hope the bathrooms go well!!  I promise I will do a better job of cleaning them when I get home-- forgive me for being so lazy! haha  Well anyways, first off I just love you all so much! You really are the best family in the world and I am so grateful to have you! This week has been amazing!! I feel like the weeks get better and better! Sister Cowley is such an amazing example to me and I am so lucky to have her.  I learn so much from her everyday and I swear she is the most positive person ever!! We have been listening to a lot of classical music and I really love it!  I have realized what a change the music I listen to makes especially out here! When we listen to uplifting music it changes our whole day!! Well this week we have been doing a lot of bike riding--which I love!!  I bought a beach cruiser and it has changed my life! haha (a little dramatic but it is really great!) Sister Cowley makes homemade bread every week for us and I drink almond milk now! It is so good! We are really trying to cut back on what we eat because I am pretty sure I am gonna have diabetes pretty soon here! Other than that-- biking makes the work so much more fun! We have been talking to so many more people and it makes you energized for the next day! It is always an adventure of who you are going to talk to each day!! We had a really amazing experience this week.  We were riding down to Summer and Elsee’s house and we had to pass UNCP (the college).  As we were riding there—we saw a group of people and Sister Cowley and I made it a goal to talk with everyone. So I was in front and I started turning towards them and then I got nervous so I tried to think to myself what to do and I personally didn’t feel to bad about not stopping!! So I just kept going and I heard Sister Cowley say... “they probably didn’t need the gospel no big deal”... hahaha We started laughing and we were about to turn around and then we just both decided to keep going and a little farther down this little boy was pointing at us.  I stopped and we started talking to his mom.  We taught her and set up a return appointment. We taught her again last night and let me tell you she is so elect!! She has so many questions and she kept telling us she was really excited to read the Book of Mormon! She committed to be baptized and is doing great! After we met her, Sister Cowley and I were talking and we just knew the Lord was guiding us to keep going so that we could meet her... not that the other people didn’t need the gospel as well but I know that we were put in the right place at the right time so that we could meet Leslie and start teaching her! We are so excited! As for Clemet, the man with no shirt, he is great!! We taught him on Saturday and he had a shirt on! Plus he really enjoys learning about Joseph Smith so that is always a plus around here! As for Brother Goodman’s house-- we have started teaching Angelique who is Stefanie, our former investigators daughter... she is a little rough but mainly because she is our same age and she has lived a really hard life but she is coming along and she always has really funny comments! We like teaching her! We actually went over to the Goodman’s last night to teach her, but when we got down there she didn’t show up.  Brother Goodman had another man there that he found on the side of the road on the way home from church that was having car troubles.  The man was from Haiti and he was living in NYC.  He and his son were moving to Florida and their car broke down so they were staying with Brother Goodman for the next couple of days while he fixed their car... Did I tell you he knows how to do that as well... honestly there are so many secrets about that man it is not even funny! He used to own a yacht! haha  But anyways,  when we got to Brother Goodman’s house we started teaching this man.  I don’t know if anything will come from it but Brother Goodman was his good samaritan for the night and hopefully the missionaries in Florida catch up with him! As for everything else around here, the work is just great!  I love it so much!! I am so excited for Clay to get our here! It is funny because as I have been trying to read the standard works I have been finishing up the Book of Mormon as well and it just so happened that they are both talking about the same thing as I read them!   I love learning from them everyday! I am in Exodus right now and it has been talking about Moses.  I can’t remember where exactly and I don’t have my Bible with me right now-- but it pretty much is just when the Lord is telling Moses what he needs to do and Moses says I stumble over my words and I am not eloquent enough for this job. (in other words the way we all feel when it comes to being on the Lords errand)  Then the Lord just simply says,  "I am not the one who made you, anything that I ask can be done if you have the faith to do it!"  Just like in 1 Nephi 3:7 it says,  “I will go I will do the things the Lord commands I know the Lord provides a way He wants me to obey”.  I know that the Lord does not give us a task that we can’t accomplish! If we have the faith and rely on Him we are able to do anything that we have been asked to do! So as this new Temple comes around I know that it is going to be a huge missionary experience and I know that if each of you have the faith to open your mouth that everything will work out! The Lord will guide you in everything that you do! I know this to be true because I see it everyday! I stumble over my words and I feel like I don’t know what I am going to say a lot of the time but some how when I open my mouth things just start to flow and thoughts come to my mind. I love being a missionary! This is the most exciting work and I am so blessed to be a part of it! I hope you all know how much I love you and have the best week!!

Love always

Cass/ Sister Oliver