24 Feb 2014

Dear Mom,

I finally made it back into my own area, I've missed being here. I've
spent the last week and a half sleeping on the couch. Working with all
four of the elders in third ward. I would float between both of the
companionships. But now I'm with my own companion so I don't have to
be as brother Lowry says "the lone man in the garden of Eden"

We've been trying to get a hold of all the investigators that I was
working with before elder Camarena left, so far... No success. It
pretty well time to simply start over and go tract some new roads.

Elder mellor is pretty cool. He is like a mix of all the other
companions I've had so far. Some of it is good and some of it... I
wish I could get rid of. But it is what it is. We have two more elders
serving here in the Gainesville 2nd ward. Elders maxfield & Capel.
Which has made things much easier for p-day since we are no longer
limited by having to share the car with the sisters who live in the
same complex as us. Elder maxfield is a goof. He is pretty funny to be
around and elder Capel is just plain cool. He is about as green as
missionaries can be. Bishop made him get up I front of the whole ward
on Sunday and talk for about five minutes. A good way to welcome him
into the ward.

Because of the new elders who are working in this ward now we have had
to further subdivide the ward so we aren't double covering areas.
Which has resulted in us losing half of our investigators to one of
the other sister companionships. Though we are vote ting some of their
work to so its a bit of a fair trade. If things work out the way I
think they will we will be biking even further every day and we
already bike between 10 - 15 miles throughout the day. Which usually
eats up about an hour each day to get anywhere and back. A lot of
times we have to bike to the far edge of the area and ward boundaries
to find areas that haven't been worked in for a while. We will be
doing this more often now.

We have a mailbox at the front of our apartment complex so when we get
boxes they are put into a lockbox and they put e key in our locked ail
box so we can pick them up when we come in at night. We have also
become pretty good friends with the mail lady who brings the mail. So
we know really quick when boxes are arriving for us. Yes I did get the
box.

That relief society project sounds really good. I'm guessing that
y'all get a lot of missionaries that come from warmer climates. A lot
of the missionaries that come here tend to forget that Florida and
Georgia still get pretty chilly during the winter even if it only
lasts about two weeks, maybe three. Then it gets warmer again. Then
the cycle repeats two or three time before "winter is technically
over.

It pretty hard for me to believe that carter is older than I was when
he was born. So the idea that he is going to be 13 is pretty crazy.
Who gave him permission to grow up so fast?

You got called to the nursery huh? How is that going? I guess that
since you have all kinds of time to devote to your grandchildren The
Lord figured he could give you more children to look after. I'm sure
you will have all kinds of fun with your new calling.

I'm having fun here, so I hope y'all have fun back home.

Sincerely,
Elder Ogilvie

4 Feb 2014

Dear Mom

i love the video of champ. it made me happy. tell champ i miss him. he still looks like the dog i left behind. no i haven't heard from kevin since i left to come out here. it would help if i had his email address or home address but i haven't heard from him in a long time. it sounds to me like every one back home is well and happy.

it has been a good week for us here. even while trying to tract during the super bowl. elder Camarena didn't have a whole lot of hope for us to be able to find anyone who would talk to us during that time. he "laid down the gauntlet" to god and god won. we were out and after having 18 people tell us that the Super Bowl was on told us to leave. that was when we found a lady that would talk with us. we then went to set a return appointment and her husband showed up so we were able to talk with him for a moment. he then offered us pizza while we were there. so we sat down and ate with him and his family as well as share parts of the first lesson with him. then with it being so late he then threw our bikes in the back of his van and he drove us home so were home right when we needed to be. he also saved us a 40 minute bike ride home. god does provide miracles.

this sunday we went over all the basic commandments of the gospel, ever since the beginning of the year we have been doing all the missionary lessons in gospel principles class. this way when ever an investigator comes to church they can learn the basic lessons and hear what some of the recent converts have to say and it gives them an opportunity to ask questions to more than just the missionaries. it works well when we can get an investigator to keep a commitment to come to church.

my bike is working quite well still. being in gainesville has provided the opportunity to have it repaired in ways that have really needed it. the only problems that it has have come because of the fact that it has been very well used over the last 16 months. in contrast with elder Camarenas's bike mine is still in very good shape. his is literally starting to fall apart. he is just borrowing an old bike from a member here in town.

we have not had to many big events happen over the last week. pretty much everything that is going to be happening is happening this next week with zone conference. there they will be giving everyone iPads. one thing i was thinking to get would be a portable home speaker to go with it. that i can connect by bluetooth that way we can use it to show videos and actually hear them. to use we also have several service projects that we will be helping with. just looking at my planner we don't have a whole ton of time where we don't have anything scheduled to be doing. so we will hopefully be having busy and effective week. hopefully.

florid has bi-polar weather it can not make its mind up one day it is warm and the next it is cold. there is no predicting the weather for now we are just happy that it is warm. though from what am told that could be changing again this next week.

have fun at springs this week end while dad has fun down in arizona. i hope all continues to be well at home.

Sincerely,

Elder Ogilvie