Monday, January 27, 2014

27 Jan 2014

Dear Mom,

no I'm not that cold now but its suppose to get that cold again soon. i am happy to not have to deal with trying to ride a bike in the snow, only in cold wind.

this last sunday was stake conference all across the southern region. the priesthood session and adult session on saturday were all about missionary work and setting new ward mission plans and the things members can do to share the gospel with friends and family. ( using mormon words, starting conversations about god, etc). after the priesthood session president craig held an impromptu missionary meeting since he had 60 of his missionaries all in the same place. he took the opportunity to talk about how president kimball prophesied of the day that missionaries would be using the internet to do missionary work and how through that the gospel will go to all the world. then on sunday we had a broadcast session from Orlando where Elder Russell M. Nelson spoke about the doctrine of christ. along with 3 other general authorities. it was broadcast to 48 stakes down here. it was all pretty cool. they announced that last year there were 26 missionaries serving in the gainesville stake in october of 2012 and now there are 60 Full-time missionaries serving in this stake. at least 20 of them are sisters.

most of the stuff i post is already on Facebook on one of the many different pages the are church related or run by the church. that usually where find it, also sites like mormonchannel.org and mormon.org and even lds.org. i have tons of stuff to choose from. one of the things president talked about is that 1 inspired post can reach 50,000+ people. multiply that by 15 million members and missionaries and add on top of that that each member posts more than just one week... that is a lot of people reached. president kimball's words are coming true.

we were on our way to go find one of our investigators who has disappeared since we saw him almost 3 weeks ago and as we were biking up the hill (yes florida has hills) to go see him we had a man stop us to ask for directions back to the freeway then started to ask questions about our missionary work, and about what we are going about teaching. but then whenever we started to explain he would cut us off and ask more questions then followed by the statement " i'm confused" and "i'm all ears" before he would start talking again. he also went off on a rant about voting for mormon leaders because they are mormon for about five minutes when he said that he had to go quickly. and all this happened in the middle of the road on the hill.when it was all over, all we could do was laugh at how strange our encounter with this man was. of every thing that happened that was by far the strangest.

in other news. the mission will be giving all the missionaries mini iPads the first full week of february at zone conference, we know this: 1) because all the leaders each have one already 2) because in the last supplies distribution they did not give us new planners for the next month. 3) president said so. even though they haven't given us the date for when zone conference is yet. so that will be bringing an exciting change for the whole mission. until then we will be using the old fashioned planners. which works pretty well.

i imagine that everyone is doing well back home. it is really exciting that lila os going to be baptized on the 8th of next month. i hope that you have a safe trip up and back. love ya'll!

Sincerely,
Elder Ogilvie

Monday, January 20, 2014

20 Jan 2014

Dear Mom,

you know i don't like pictures of myself, you only have to look at the pictures of springs wedding for that. i do have some good ones i haven't posted yet and some I'm not sure i can put up. i think by comparison i am a lot happier in the pictures i put up. when sister barry tried to take my picture one time. just before they left. she tried what seemed like 30 times (alex can probably appreciate this) before she got one that was good. and we were laughing the whole time. so just because i don't have a smile in a picture does not mean that i was unhappy the whole time.

thats good that you got to talk with jerry (not that i actually know or remember who he is). but yes being able to use things like Skype can be a wonderful blessing in staying connected to anyone and everyone we know and love.

no i never get any holidays, i didn't even know today was one until yesterday, and even then it didn't matter enough to us to make any difference seeing as how today is p-day anyway.

this next week we are having an early stake conference. so instead of 3 hours of church we get 5 yay!!!!!. this time though. the main meeting is going to be broadcast from orlando. so i don't really know why. i figure its got to be something more important that normal. they have said it will have to do a lot with hastening the work. so i suspect that's what it will be. we had some of the stake presidency members come and speak in this ward on overcoming addiction and serving others. they tied the two of them together very well.

florida just can't make its mind up, one day it is freezing cold, the next it's hot, than its warm during the day and cold at night, or cold during the day and warmer at night. so yeah the weather can't make its mind up.

we have found several families that we can start teaching just as soon as we can get appointments that will be kept. the ward has also released over half of our amazing ward missionaries. either because they have moved away or been given a new calling. so we are hoping bishop call some new ward missionaries soon. we defiantly need some extra help now.

hope all is well at home.

Sincerely,
Elder Ogilvie

Monday, January 13, 2014

13 Jan 2014

Dear mom

this week has been busy. we have been going all over the place to everything that we need to. we are at no loss for work. Woo-Hoo! it is about time. also it has gotten warmer too. the cold weather is gone at least for the next couple of days. which makes it easier to do. we have been blessed to have 1 investigator to be able to work with right around where we live so we don't have to bike forever to find someone to talk with when we have limited time. that and we also have some people who seem to actually have some genuine commitment to finding out about the gospel and the book of mormon. we even have one who has agreed to be baptized on february 9th. it would be sooner but he is going on a vacation and won't be back to have a date any sooner. i think i found him on Facebook so should be able to start teaching him there while he is away.

we were able to help move in some large furniture for some members who moved into the ward. for now there will be two adams families in this ward for about another month before the first adams family moves out. we also have a lot of members all moving in to the same neighborhood. i can think of six families that have all moved in and four of them are on the same road. thats a lot of members all in the same place for florida.

we have a new district leader for the district that i am in and he happens to have just been released form being the assistant to president. so i suspect that things are going to be somewhat interesting around here as we see what changes he brings in to the area. hopefully things continue to get better for us. i certainly hope that the way things were this week aren't just a once in 6 weeks deal.

it has been a long time since I've said "Hello Champ". so here it is. i wonder if he still knows who i am? i don't think that sydney and champ have any problems with each other.

we don't have anything super exciting that is coming in this next week, not yet anyway. you asked how often I'm on Facebook? I'm on for about an hour everyday. usually just to send and check messages and find people to teach. sometimes i post something that i think will benefit someone I'm working with. other efforts as inspired to do. ask people for online referrals. if by chance you have someone in your friends list that needs/wants to hear the gospel invite them to friend me or you local missionaries (if they are on Facebook).

i hope things are well back home!

Sincerely,
Elder Ogilvie

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

7 Jan 2014

Dear mom,

i did get your letter... a week late. but thats ok. we had a lot to do last week. it just made today better getting to read two letters.

things have been well here. i've finally finished with all the training for Facebook, and I'm still training Elder Camarena as a missionary. though with what president said last night. come february there is going to be another set of trainings when they give out the digital technology to all the missionaries in the mission at this next Zone conference. assuming that this isn't just another "it will come next month" statement.

we had calls for transfers last night. no surprises i will be staying right where i am at for at least another six weeks. unless something crazy happens. its unlikely. most of the missionaries that i am now surrounded by are staying too. only four of them are moving away to new places.

you can have your typical utah cold back. it was 20 degrees outside last night. and we don't have any other form of transportation other than bicycles. when we were either walking or standing it was fine but trying to bike in that was fridged at best. this is very cold for florida when it happens for more than 2-3 days during the winter. it feels like its been this way for a week.

we have been out doing a lot of tracting and yesterday as we tracked the neighborhood that our ward mission caroled in we found a family to start teaching. they were the very last house on the road and living next to two very active members. that has been our exciting highlight of our week so far. last week we found several other people to start teaching so we are not at a loss for people to teach if they would simply keep their appointments. (apparently its harder than it sounds).

last night elder Camarena's bike busted a big hole right through his rear tires tread while we were a 4 mile walk from home. at 8:30 at night. thanks to some really good members though we were able to get home in time to hear president read off transfers since he does that monday night after everything is said and done.

there are a lot of times that I've heard what is going on in the outside world, and thought I'm glad i don't have to deal with any of that right now. but then i think i have to go back into that world eventually. the more i hear the more i appreciate being away from all of that. i guess the more i hear about whats going on i just think about Mosiah 29:23-36, then i think it more signs of the end. then there is the old saying its darkest just before the dawn so.... the end soon cometh. i can't count how many people i hear say how bad things have become. but i don't have to worry about that now.

i get to see some of the people from Williston every now and then. since i serve in the stake center we see a members come and go from all the wards in the stake. so occasionally i see one or two of them. and I've found a few of them on Facebook. I've also been able to find members and investigators from the other areas that i have served in so that i can work with them online.

hope everyone is well back home.

Sincerely,
Elder Ogilvie