Tuesday, January 29, 2013

January 28th, 2013

dear mom,

yes i am very happy to see that the earth is not covered in snow.
transfers are on the 13th of February. its a little odd to think that they are only that far away. the most exciting this week has been was having 7 of our investigators show up to church all at once. the best part is that the ward really did their part in making them all feel welcome. than my companion and i proceeded to teach the gospel principals class, so that 3 hour block of church was the most fun we had all week.
i just barely got a letter from spring telling me that my oldest niece is now 7 years old. i already figured carter was going to be a deacon pretty soon. Brighyn can and will come when the lord is ready (his time and our time is not the same). but on that note does Logan and Alex have some kind of definitive due date?
if i haven't told you before both me and my companion are 23. we are the oldest missionaries in our district, but not in the mission. your 10-1 guess is as good as mine. chances are it will happen that way because he has been here for 6 month now. and as i heard it president barry wants us each to serve in 4-5 areas throughout our missions. we are still having to use our car and bikes in the same day often we find that we have to park the car and go walking just so we don't run out of our miles limit. but that's where we are suppose to be any way. :)
i think the Branford ward has lost a little bit of faith in previous missionaries and the missionary work here. this was evident in the results from the work in 2012. and the fact that they set such low goals for the whole year. and as it looks now things are a lot better than they were 6 months ago.
i hope you have lots of fun back playing in the snow. love you all
Sincerely
Elder Ogilvie
P.S.
-"Called to serve" Mysterious third verse
Called to be a chosen generation
Preach my gospel is a sacred call
JAX is white and ready now to harvest
We go forth to gather all
-Chorus (third verse only)
Onward, ever onward
Teach and baptize in his name
Onward, ever onward
Every member we retain; go
Forward, pressing forward,
As a triumph song we sing
God our strength will be;
press forward, ever called to serve our king.

Monday, January 21, 2013

21 January, 2013

Dear mom, & family
our sacrament meeting was also on the topic of missionary work, our speakers were instructed to speak on one of (or part of) a missionary lesson anddid you know that there is a secret 3rd verse to the song "called to serve"? i'll send it to you next week. that was fun to listen to. no i did not speak in church though both of us expected that they would call one of us up at the last minute to replace our ward mission leader whom we had a strong suspicion was going to disappear before sunday and not return for two weeks. we also prepared to teach gospel principles to. suprisingly enough he was there. so we didnt have to do any of that.
we have a few people we are excited about. we have a less active family we are working with, they have a son who is a little older than carter (about 11 years old) who wants to be baptised. they all came to church this last sunday. our only real diffiulty is getting out to mayo FL where they live to actually teach them. we dont have the miles to go out there all the time like we need to. its hard enough when we only have to go to lake city every week. and some times twice in the week. there is also a family of 4 that we got a referal for, that referal came to us from our stake president. and thats only half of the people we have found in the last 3 weeks.
our ward members are amazing. they love to feed us every chance they get. we have had weeks that we have had a dinner appointment almost every night. usually during the last two weeks of the month when they think we are about to starve. we are pretty well fed. addressing anyone by brother or sister (last name here) can get really confusing when about five or six people will turn around and awnser the call. there are alot of people who are related all of whom attend the same ward. most of our ward however has no abillity to take us anywhere. but there are a few who can and will awnser the call for help when we need it.
our apartment is nice. when ever the temperature out side is good at night the house temprature is ok. if it gets cold however. then our house is cold all day. it usually stays pretty clean, though it always needs cleaning when p day comes around. it is totally surounded by grass and trees. there is no real driveway to speak of. mistly its just a worn dirt path where we bring the car in and out from the house. and we are just a little ways down from the Rodeo so we can always hear what is going on over there. its a good place to live when its kept up.
more often than not p-day is so busy with things to do that we dont get out to have a lot of fun. the first one of the month is usually zone p-day so we drive up to lake ciy to be with everyone else in the zone. some members took us to a lbig bar-b-que at another members house today. he had live blue grass music playing. that was an exciting new experience.
yes we are still doing trade offs with other missionaries. i will be going up to live oak with another missionary on wensday. and returning to branford on thursday morning. i've got to do it twice every transfer cycle. once for me and once for my companion. this next wensday is also president interviews. president told me i wouldnt have one for 6 months last time i spoke with him. but because i moved zones the schedule changed so i will be looking forward to that.
im sorry to hear that you are still burried under the cold wet snow. we dont get any of that stuff here. and i sure dont miss it. i know a lot of members who have been out your way recently and they keep telling us how cold it is. though they are probably slightly biased because its normally so warm down here.
love you, keep warm
Sincerely
Elder Ogilvie

Thursday, January 17, 2013

January 14th, 2013

Dear mom
thank you for the picture of utah under 18" of snow. it was good, for a laugh. i havent quite been out 6 months yet that wont be untill february (next month). and really has not felt like ive been out as long as i have. there are days that do feel super long. mostly tuesday wensday and thursday. beyond that everything else just zips by like a car on the highway. and january is half gone.
i hope mark and ashely had a good open house at the stadium. it sounds like it was fun. i hope champ is having fun in the snow. i am personaly happy i dont have to put up with that cold wet stuff. its still pretty warm out and its starting to get hotter for now.
it really wont be long untill you are going to have a new granddaughter. it looks like all your family pictures will be out dated pretty soon.
things are going well out here we just had a meeting with our ward to start more interaction with the members in getting them to do the missionary work in finding those who are ready to here and recive the gospel. we have been having a hard time getting members to help in the finding part of the work. but when we do get help we usually find some one worth finding. this last time it ended in finding people who are trully prepared to listen and to act on the gospel they are reciving.
hope things are going well and continue to go well. may the lord bless everyone back home.
Sincerely
Elder Ogilvie
i know there are people in utah too. so be nice to them, find someone for them to teach. they are there, somewhere, hidding in plain sight.
D&C 123:12

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Dec 24, 2012

Dear Mom
When i got your letter last week i figured i would get the box on either tuesday or wensday. i had thought that it had come on tuesday untill i checked the name on the box and that one was for another missionary who no longer lives here. but no worries i did get the box and the christmas joy that it contains. thank you for the gps. it has already saved us quite a few headaches and lost hours. the ward here has been giving us lots of food and candy and we had a solid dinner appointment just about every night last week. with all of that we dont have to worry about getting food for the next two weeks or so. which is nice.
im glad to see that the lord provided a christmas miracle for every trial that has come your way in the last week. and i am realy happy that grandma nesbitt is doing very well now. i hope she continues to get better quickly. over the last couple of weeks out here we have had one of the older members of the ward in the hospital with a swollen spine. while there he managed to find the elders in gainesville a couple of new people to teach. we think he ended up there simply to do missionary work. he is by far the best member missionary i have ever met.
when i was in williston we were teaching the gospel principles class. it was actually setup and run by the ward mission leader. i would teach about every three weeks. i taught that class the first week i was in williston and the last week i was there. we are suppose to have it here in branford to but there is essentially no purpose because the only people who should attend that class are either totally inactive or out of state. the only recent convert we have is currently in the phillipenes and wont be back for another month atleast. that and we dont currently have a ward mission leader.
thank you for all of your support,
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
with lots of love,
Elder Ogilvie