Monday, March 23, 2015

March 23, 2015



Hello everybody! :)
this week was rather stellar! :)
we started out on tuesday with an X-ray, that went well... its fun to look at the interesting twists, turns, and backflips my spine does! hopefully i get to figure that out soon.
on wednesday we had an awesome lesson with Marie-Rose again, she is still going hard, full of faith. we dont think she is willing or ready to change religions or anything, but visiting her can only do good. even if its her that builds us up! :P
then thursday we got to go to Opoku's house and talk about the restoration, that family is doing so well! and after that we went to two members houses to talk to them, get the missionary motivation light under their bums, and both visits went super well! one of the visits was with the branch president, and at first they were like we dont really talk to alot of people, then his wife was like "oh, but i talked to this neighbor and this friend and her cousin and their dog and the half sister of the renter from the house 3 doors down from here, we also gave that person a book of mormon..." etc... so that was a super good time, that couple is so dang inspiring. i want to become like them some day. thats one of my favourite things about being on a mission. you get to observe and watch people-see traits that i want, that i like, that i dislike, i really just get to see a smorg of attributes then try to apply them to myself, or write them down to apply later in marriage or child-rearing or whatever. obviously i like to trach the gospel and bring others to Christ, thats a given. but its fun to see who i can become, see the traits that i read about in preach my gospel and in the scriptures, but they are spread out, im jsut trying to see how other people have applied them and i can do the same if it worked well for them!
on friday i was feleing sick, (i think it was the branch presidents food...) but that didnt last long, jsut during studies. we taught Jean-Pierre and we went to Alexandras and taught Guerda and Sando, we are going to try to set a date for them to be baptized soon! hopefully that goes well! and we had some more time so we swung by a less actives house and had a great lesson with him and his daughter, his daughter asked if she could practice her english with us and we were like, ugh, we have a family from Ghana that were teaching, you could come along with us to teach them and that way you could practice your english too! :D and she was down, so thats going to be sweet! :)
saturday we had a sweet lesson with Madalina, she opened up alot and is doing really well. shes so honest and kind and just has very pure intentions. God is really going to bless her soon, shes an honest seeker of truth, and we know that God answers those that seek with pure intent, and she is FULL of real intent! i love when good things are about to happen!
Pray for us, pray for our investigators. i love you all, i appreciate your kindness in emailing me and showing me your support.
have a good week! <3
Elder Oviatt

March 16, 2015



okay not out-of-the-ordinary busy, but like, missionary life is a busy time!
so on monday we went up to the top of notre dame, that was pretty cool! real pretty!
theres a cool trick with pigeons that if you scare them they fly a couple feet away, but if you throw something in the air they scatter and fly far away and like, dont come back as fast. and there was a group of like 50 pigeons and people were taking pictures with bread and the pigeons come and land on them and stuff, but then i walked right into the middle and threw my planner in the air and it was like a dusty black cloud of bird flu. i heard a young child scream. it was actually super cool :P AND, i didnt even get pooped on! BONUS!
and on monday night we had a family home evening that was off the hook. there was like 9 people there, we played ping-pong and cards and had a member give a sick spiritual thought, it was dope! investigators eer'where!
then we spend a fair amount of the week preparing Opoku for his baptism, doing the program and all that jazz, the interview ya know? good stuff, and he was totally ready! the baptism was really nice, a spiritual, smooth, and delicious little gathering was held at the church, and there was a fair amount of people there!
we also had transfer news, im staying, no surprise cause im still training, next transfers will be thoroughly interesting though! cause we whitewashed itll be impossible to know who is staying of leaving!
and for the pictures we have the Sekyere father and son duo pre-baptism, and we found black swans. not a terrible surprise cause in Aulnay 98% of people are black! so like, makes sense that the swans are balck too, right? :P
have a great week all you beautiful people, and to those that are less beautiful... well you can have a pretty good week, but not a great week like everybody else. sorry.
our spiritual thought comes from Helaman 5:12. read it, love it, be spiritually fulfilled! if you dont have a book of mormon hit up Mormon.org, and ask for one. two (hopefully) goodlookin guys of girls will come and give you one, and if you want they will explain where it comes from and why its important!
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March 9, 2015

time is Flying! holy cow. plus, its raining blessings as usual. Thats what obediance does right!
in any case, this week we had a couple really amazing things happen!
on wednesday we visited this lady named Mary-Rose, shes an old investigator, and she is pretty much one of the most faithfilled people ive ever met. we show up and she is so smiley and happy, but then she talks about how the tests for her cancer came back and its just gettibng worsen but shes like "if God wants me to be healed, ill be healed, if not, thats fine, He knows what hes doing!" with a smile on her face. then before we left she gave us a massive handful of candy. 
weve also been helping Opoku prepare for his baptism which will be on saturday, thats going to be sweet! super exctied for that.
but my favourite three miracles for this week are as follows:
Benjamin, our investigator who is in a wheelchair, (thats not important to the story) showed up for our lesson and had a TON of great questions, he read the book of mormon chapter that we left him and hes like "the first page i read i knew it was true" then he went on to say that the story about joseph smith and the priesthood and everything with the restoration and how it just makes sense to him, he just knows its true, and he asked about how he can be baptized by the priesthood, and how people can recieve the priesthood and like everything, he was so interested, and so we told him the process and everything, and we left him with another chapter to read and to pray to have a spiritual confirmation to strengthen his testimony of these things he already believes, and to also pray for a date to be baptized. hes like, okay! then he showed up for all 3 hours of church, we are way too blessed. honestly though.
Second is Carole, shes an investigator that we found over a month ago. she came to church, and she was like, "im comin back, i really like this" then she never came back, never responded to our calls or texts, but then saturday night, my comp (bless his soul, hes so inspired.) was like we should text carole invite her to church, then we forwarded the message to the potential people, and she came to church and she was like "yeah i just got back from africa, i was visitiing my family!" and we totally could have let her slip through the cracks but Bennett just felt like we should text her again. so sweet. PLUS, bonus miracle, during sacrament meeting all the talks were about the temple, an i was praying that our investigators that were there would be touched by the spirit. Carole leaned over and she asked a question about baptisms for the dead, and then a few minutes later she was like "where is the nearest temple? how can i go?" and she had this sense of eagerness and excitement, it was SUCH a miracle! :)
and third is we were planning for a lesson, and we have a goal to have a scripture for every lesson we teach, and we were choosing a scripture for this lesson and we stumbled on a really good one that was totally unrelated to our lesson, but we felt like thats what we needed to share. while we were at a lesson with Maddalina we were teaching and she was like "i am not worthy of Gods love, ive done bad things, i do bad things. he continues to bless me. its not fair" she doesnt feel like she can come to church because she just is that humble and brokenhearted. we talked to her a bit, and shared the scripture we had chosen the night before which was romans 8:38 and 39, 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, northings to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God loves each and every one of us, wether we feel like we deserve it or not. he will be with us, through thick and thin,
thank you for all oyur prayers, for all oyur support. sorry for not emailing last week. <3
Adios Amigos!
-Elder Oviatt

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