21 April 2014

Dear mom,

This has been the craziest week. Easter Sunday was amazing, the ward
had a suprise baptism of a young woman who has been coming to church
for over a year who was only kept from joining because her parents
wouldn't give her the permission to be baptized. But since they gave
her permission to join the millitary she was able to then join the
church of her own free will without her parents being able to stop it.
MIRACLE!!!

With all the excitement for Easter, bishop Maughan made some special
picture invitations for church for us to pass out to our investigators
and less active members that we go visit. It has a picture of Christ
knocking on the door and a message about Christ on the back. They were
pretty cool. We passed out a ton of them. In all the efforts we had 1
investigator come and join us this Sunday. So he got an extra special
Sunday to attend because he saw the confirmation of marissa, and got
to hear both the bishop and the stake president speak in church on
eater of all Sundays to attend. Services were amazing.

We also ate dinner with Joseph smith for Easter dinner. Joseph smith
is our elders quorum president. He is the funniest EQ president that
I've meet. That's where the picture of me holding two giant teddy
bears comes from.

We had a district blitz on Saturday where we all split up with members
to go invite as many less active members and their neighbors as we
could find to come to church using the invitations that bishop made
for us to pass out. In total we had 20 companionships going out to
contact people it was pretty intense and fun.

We have had so much fun going around this week. It has been stormy and
raining every day for the last week straight. We've found seemingly
elect people and those who only wish to cause us harm. So it's been
exciting. I went on my trade off with elder Clark and people just
plain hated on us all night long. we spent the night just laughing
because we realized that people were just fulfilling the prophecies
about the true followers of Jesus Christ being persecuted for what we
try and share. We talked about it in gospel principles how Christ
didn't bring peace but a sword ( of truth ). people don't like to be
told that they are wrong so they revile us when we bring them exactly
what they need.

It sound to me like you are going to have a fun summer. A busy summer
too. Have fun. I know we are going to have fun here.

Our ward mission leader is awesome, he is also a smith, but not
related to Joseph smith EQ President. I have noticed that in almost
every ward I've been in there have been some interesting family
relationships. Our ward mission leader here is pretty cool. And he is
of top of everything. Seeing as how we just switched leaders things
are moving along nicely.

They say pictures are worth a thousand words. So here are 5 pictures
so there's another 5000 words for you to read. Love y'all

Sincerely,
Elder Ogilvie

1 April 2014

Dear mom,

First of all this week is transfers. And they are kicking me out of
Gainesville :(. Now I am going to the beach, Jax beaches to be exact.
So now I am attempting to pack up all of my stuff which is
surprisingly a lot.

So this week has been really crazy. We found an investigator that has
had some pretty interesting experiences with god. We also were
teaching a lesson out on the front porch of this investigator when a
member looking to move into the area came up to us in the middle of
the lesson, and stuffed $100 bill in the front pocket of elder
Mellor's white shirt and walked away before we could properly reject
it. The crazy part is that the next day we were working online at the
front office of our apartment complex, when this member came up to us
& introduced himself.

This has also been one of the hardest for getting anything done, or
feeling like we accomplished anything. All of our investigators have
gone done disappeared. Where they went I do not know. People and their
agency, it's making us look bad :).

This was our fast Sunday so there wasn't really any specific topics
that got discussed. We did do a lesson on prayer for gospel principles
though. It has happened many times since I've been out here where
prayers were answered in ways I never expected. So think about a time
when you got an answer to prayer  that came in a completely different
way than you ever thought it would come.

President Craig gave us the challenge to read the Book of Mormon again
in 90 days. This just after I finished reading it and had moved on to
studying conference talks. So here we go again.

I'm looking forward to going to general conference in the new area.
Hopefully I will be able to get to know the new ward fairly quickly.
I'm sure it will be fun seeing as how I've not actually served in
Jacksonville yet.

You can expect a box to come your way this week, I'm sending home some
books and things I don't need and or want to carry around any more. I
just dropped it off at the post office so it should arrive on
Thursday.

I'm glad to know that everyone is well back home. Enjoy general conference.

Sincerely,
Elder Ogilvie

Love y'all

24 March 2014

Dear Mom,

It's been an interesting week, we had president interviews, so I got
the opportunity to talk with him about things that are going on in
this area, interviews with president Craig are a lot quicker than when
president Barry was here.

We have still been biking all around the area trying to find people to
teach, and we have been meeting with different members helping them to
identify 12 of their friends who are either, not members or who are
completely inactive, then prayerfully invite 1 of them each week to
come to church or meet with us ( the missionaries ). So far it is
working, we have just barely started.

This has not been a happy few days for elder mellor, his bike has
started falling apart in some fairly normal ways, but it's been
ruining his week, And creating some tension that does not need to
exist. We got most of it fixed today. So it shouldn't be a problem
now.

For as hard as things are here in Gainesville, this is the one set of
ward leaders that I have so far seen that, has effectively and
efficiently handled every trouble that has come this way, also it's
the only ward that has put any kind of focus on working with the
missionaries in the ward. So I really like the ward leaders here.

We did both of our exchanges this week, so I wasn't in my pun area for
what felt like half of the week. When I went with our district leader
elder tuft, we put my stuff in their apartment before we went out to
work, and elder tuft forgot the key to the apartment, so when the
maintenance man came to fix their ac he locked the door behind him, so
when we returned that night we were locked out of the apartment, we
almost had to spend the night in the apartment of the other 3rd ward
elders down stairs, fortunately for us the front office happened to be
open till late that evening so after a few phone calls and a miracle
from Heavenly Father the maintenance man cam and unlocked the door for
us. That particular day was full of prayers being answered, as it
turns out elder tuft and his companion elder pili's bikes are both
broken, so when we went Tracting that day and we Tracted into a man
who had two extra bikes that he just gave them. So there is a miracle
or two to consider this week.

As for the family that we Tracted into on Super Bowl Sunday, we had to
drop them. They refused to believe that the Holy Ghost would bear
witness of the message, they only wanted historical proof of the Book
of Mormon and restoration of the gospel. Some times that's the way it
goes, the people we often expect to be the ones who will receive the
message, are often the ones that don't, and the people that we don't
think will, quite often do.

It seems like every conference has brought out some new catch phrase
from a current apostle. I can't wait to hear what amazing messages we
will hear in two weeks.

Now my letter is getting long too. So I hope y'all. Have a wonderful week.

Sincerely,
Elder Ogilvie

Love y'all

17 March 2014

Dear mom,

I love you! It dound like y'all are having a great week. It's been
interesting and hard week for us here. That's so funny that carter got
a call from someone looking to hire me.  Imguess that means that there
are places for me to go work when I return.

Things are going kinda well, it could still be better, but it's good
enough for now. Presidents interviews are this next week, so I'm
looking forward to that.

For fun today we are going to go visit "the  Swamp" I will try and
send a picture.

Cool missionary experiences are to be found everywhere. Some times for
us when it seems like everything is going wrong, the cool moment is
when we find the one person who actually invites us back. That
happened last night. I also think I've found some one that I can begin
to teach online, through facebook. Somehow doing it that way is way
harder than it sounds, and it doesn't sound easy at all. We tend to
think everyone is online all the time, which is partially true, but
when we get online at the appointed time people aren't on facebook. So
when I do find someone it is a miracle. I suppose the same could be
said for normal missionary work.

It will be fun for y'all to have family around for general conference,
is grandma having a big Easter party that Sunday? Or are the parties
pretty much done? It's weird to think that this general conference has
come again so fast, I wonder what inspired council will be given this
year. Also what the total count of full time missionaries is at, I
know last I heard it was over 90,000. The church has grown a lot in
the last five years. ( I've been looking at the statistical reports
from each of the conferences)

You should follow Logan's advice to pray for missionary experiences
EVERY DAY! The Lord wants to give them to you. That goes for the whole
family. He is waiting for you to do your part so he can bless the
people around you and you too.

This last week we had a former investigator call us and ask us to come
back, he told us that he got a an answer that god really does exist,
he said he didn't believe me, but when he did what we asked him to do
he got an answer to the questions that he asked, now he is a more
solid investigator. God answers prayers, it may take weeks... It may
take months, but with real intent and a humble heart god will answer
prayers.

Now my letter is getting long so I hope y'all have a wonderful week,love y'all
Sincerely,
Elder Ogilvie


Love y'all

10 March 2014

Dear Mom,

It has been a hard week. We haven't been able to visit with a lot of
the promising potentials that we found. Neither has this been the most
loving companionship that I have been in either. There seems to be a
lot of over reacting going on, in the part of my companion. He really
doesn't like it here. No matter what I try and do or say it hasn't
helped. Companionship inventory helped for a time but it seems to wear
off fairly quickly.

Brightyn is almost a year old? That was a fast year. That is so cool.
She really is growing up fast. It's amazing. Who else's birthday is
coming up? I know Logan is at the end of the month hen general
conference is the beginning of next.

It's crazy that general conference is next month. It doesn't seem like
it was all that long ago that we had the October general conference. I
wonder what amazing things will be brought up this time?

Wen have been involved in a big service project as we helped the stake
relief society put together an activity. We did most of the set up and
clean up, and were there to help get people to the right place at the
right time. It was fun to because I got to see some of the people who
I haven't had an opportunity to interact with since I left Williston a
year and a half ago.

Our bishop here went to a conference at which one of the apostles
spoke. He talked about how soon the return of The Lord is and then
proceeded to give tons of instruction for the wards regarding the need
to focus on missionary work. I think we sat and listened to bishop
talk about it for ten minutes during sacrament meeting.

It's been a long time since I sent scriptures home. I can send you
some more if you would like. I have enough space in my current
journals to last for the next 6 moths, probably longer.

Utah and Idaho pray for rain and it rains here. Congratulations your
prayers have been answered. Now next time pray more specifically that
it will rain in your specific state. Now don't get me wrong we still
need rain too but more specific prayer invite more specific answers.

We talked about this scripture last night and how it describes missionaries.
Alma 13:27-29

Love and miss y'all

Sincerely
Elder Ogilvie

Love y'al

4 Mar 2014

Dear mom,

Things here have been slow for the most part, we ended up dropping
most if not all of our investigators, and started over. It's been a
little harder but we have managed to find some new people to talk with
so things have been working out good for us. We went and Tracted a new
neighborhood that hasn't seen missionaries in a long time so we had
quite a bit of success and a couple of return appointments for
Tuesday. At least one of them actually seems promising.

Does Sydney respond better to Sydney or shadow, which ever she
responds to better should be her name. I suppose champ is still being
lazy. Is he still super protective of Sydney?

Nothing to exciting happened this week. We did a lot more tracking
than we really wanted to and at first it worked well. Which is how we
found everyone we did.

Elder mellor is from Murray Utah. Different part of Murray from where
we lived. It's been another adventure in getting to know him a little
bit better, we have two completely different ways of doing anything.
Teaching, finding, p-day activities, grocery shopping... Everything.

As far as missionary business cards go we already have all kinds of
pass along cards to give out. We usually just write our names and
phone numbers on the back of the cards. So there is no need or use for
even more types of cards.

Nursery must have been a fun experience. So you don't get to play
grandma every Sunday? Oh well. A lot of the members here in
Gainesville related their testimony to the topic of missionary work.
Either that or that is all I heard because that's what I was listening
for. Either way it was cool.

I have found it a lot easier to write letters home while roaming
around on p-day. Now that we don't have to spend 2 solid hours sitting
at computers. I can sit and write it when I have the time to do it. I
can just sit down and write it anywhere then the letter will send when
I find some wifi

Sounds to me like everything is going well back home. I hope things
continue to go well for y'all. Love y'all

Sincerely,
Elder Ogilvie

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

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

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

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

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

23 Dec 2013

Dear mom,

so i will likely be calling at around 1 pm your time, if everything goes the way we believe it will. thats about the best i can do.

yeah we had a christmas centered theme for our sacrament meeting out here to. we had a couple of special musical numbers and bishop got up and said a few words. it was good.

seeing as how saturday was the first day of winter it was more like the middle of july, very hot and and humid. but thats alright considering that most of the time it gets terribly cold when the sun goes down around here.

i got the picture of lila and susanna, and jack? that little boy looks to big to be jack. anyway the picture was good.

this last week has been absolutely the slowest week for getting anything done. the more we tried to do the more opposition got placed in our way. we did however finally get interviews from president. which took all day long. we were suppose to have ours at around 2:30 and be done by 3:30 but they got way behind and we weren't done until almost 6:00. and between meetings and all the other stuff we have to do.we haven't had much time to do much of anything. not accounting for the half hour it takes to go anywhere and another half hour back.

you may find it amusing that we found a new gator. who has the same first name as the savior. but he is from puerto rico so it is pronounced differently.

yes i did get the christmas box with everything in it. it made my christmas a lot better and it was already good. i hope you all have a merry christmas and a happy new year. talk with ya'll on wednesday.

Sincerely,

Elder Ogilvie

16 Dec 2013

Dear Mom,

christmas is almost here and you probably can't wait to hear my voice. this christmas has been coming remarkably fast. i didn't think it would come so fast. at a computer ready to Skype. (sometime after 11:30) thats the best i can do right now. i will be calling dads account unless you give me different instructions :) if all else fails though, who's phone do you want me to call?

we have had two christmas parties this last week and the ward party for 2nd ward and the mission party, thank you to everyone who sent letters and cards they made christmas that much happier. i had a lot of fun trying to track down former companions and friends at the mission party and enjoyed the christmas musical devotional that came with it. the ward party was a night in bethleham, so everyone dressed up in time period clothes and the cultural hall was decorated like the market place. everyone was summoned by order of agustus Caesar to come to pay their "taxes" (food for the food drive) and add their name to the census. we were the roman centurions there taking the census as everyone came in. it was fun.

i did talk about an activity that we had last week that sound like basically the same thing.

i wish i was still in darien, i really liked it there. but the lord needs me here and so here i will be. the ward here is wonderful. and so are the people. i do remember why i like singles ward and older wards. trying to get something out of sacrament meeting is so much harder when there are little children left and right that are screaming for attention. being in church is a noisy experience at best on a normal day. the quietest day was by far when the primary was doing their program. it was great.

as far as Facebook rules are concerned, i can friend immediate family members and friends back home, but i can't chat over Facebook. however if i am teaching someone through chat i can invite family and friends in to chat to help the person we are teaching online. thats pretty much it. if you do message me don't expect me to reply over Facebook.

last night we were out working around a less active member of the ward and someone we talked with called the cops on us. not that the cops can do anything to us. ( we are not soliciting ). so it was really more amusing than anything else for us. i've never had anyone actually call the cops on us before. apparently there has been a series of break ins over there, at least thats what the cops said. i don't think we are headed back that way after dark anymore. we will go back during the day.

we don't ever have time to decorate our own apartment, but we are going caroling several times during this next week. we already did it once as a district, and we are going as a ward mission this next saturday. we do have one appointment for christmas.

i hope you have a:

Merry Christmas, and a Happy new year,

Sincerely,

Elder Ogilvie,

9 Dec 2013

Dear Mom,

im glad im in florida right now. i would probably be freezing up there right now. the weather here has actually been getting warmer, as it was pretty cold for a little while.

this week hasn't been to crazy but we have defiantly been more busy than we were 2 weeks ago. we were able to go and find some new people to go teach who are keeping their appointments. we keep finding people who won't so finding someone who will keep one is for us a little miracle.

i guess if your neighbor had to come home early for medical he probably won't be able to go out and finish it will he? i know there are a lot more missionaries that go home early than any one might think. i know both president craig and president barry won't/wouldn't send any missionary home for any reason except it be absolutely necessary. which is a good thing more often than not.

we had at least one day that worked out fantastic for finding people to teach and bring to church. although non of them kept with their commitment to attend. this next week will be our mission christmas conference. so we look forward to that

don't be surprised when you get a Facebook friend request from me in the next couple of days. i was called to work online starting this next week. elder Camarena and i will still be together till the end of this transfer at least. they won't send him to brazil until transfers are up and decided. he has already been waiting for 5 months. speaking of waiting for the lord and his timing... everyone who came out in his group already had their visas by time they left the MTC. so apparently the lord needs him here in gainesville for a transfer or two. i know a missionary who was waiting for his visa for 7 and a half months before being shipped out at the end of this last transfer. when this companionship ends is entirely in the lords hands. so far the lord hasn't seen for to leave me anywhere more than 4 and a half months. president says we are suppose to stay in one place from 6-9 months at a time. i think some one missed the memo.

the gainesville stake did a nativity display where members in the wards got together their nativity sets and put them up in the cultural hall for all to see. there were some really pretty nativities. this was followed by the first presidencies christmas devotional. it was a wonderful event that everyone was welcome to. i really liked the peanuts christmas nativity. it was spiritual yet funny.

i really like teaching the plan of salvation. it clearly defines why we are here, where we came from and where we are going, and it can be related to just about everyone in one way or another. my favorite part of the day changes everyday. it just depends on weather people keep their commitments and appointments. when they do, being in appointments is by far my favorite time of the day.

i did get the box you sent me for my birthday and we had some members take us out to get ice-cream when they found out. we also biked 13 miles in a big loop around our area in order to get to every appointment that we had set. so it wen't very good.

i hope you enjoy this next week. tell everyone merry christmas for me. love Ya'll

Sincerely,

Elder Ogilvie

Dec 2, 2013

dear mom,

here has come another week of fun adventures, transfers were on wednesday, and i got my new companion. Elder Camarena. he is waiting on his visa to go to Sao paulo Brazil. seeing as how we are in a bike area and he didn't have a bike. we have been stuck walking for a couple of days. that being said we found an extra bike that a member is willing to lend us for now. we also got a break in that the mission office is now has us in a car share with the sisters that live in our same apartment complex. they still get the car most of the time since the way the ward is divided they have to go 12 miles out of town to Newberry just about every single day. president told us that the mission only gets 102 cars for the now 135 companionships of missionaries

as far as any work was concerned we weren't able to to do much between transfers and thanksgiving, and all the extra studies that come with training a portuguese missionary. this next week should produce more for us to go and do.

thanksgiving was good. we had a lunch and a dinner appointment. all of it was amazing. poor Elder Andersen got transferred the day before his birthday which also happens to be thanksgiving day. our ward missionaries who fed us is a professional chef and he cooked a habenero turkey. it was delicious. it was a new twist on an old favorite. we were by no means on our own for thanksgiving day.

Tresa must be doing very good. that is super good to hear. it has been a long time since i've heard anything about her working anywhere. if i ever have before. is Tresa liking working for the energy solutions center? keep showing her love and support. overcoming the things that she is, is by no means easy.

i will be looking for the box to be headed my way. you know i will be rooting for RSL to beat KC.

i've already been through what was suppose to be a big tropical storm, but by time it reached us it was just a big storm. it didn't even deserve the tropical storm status. back when i was in darien we had a big one that knocked over a couple of large trees. though it only lasted about 30 minutes before it had completely passed through town, but we did have to go find shelter for that little bit of time. it was funny because we got the storm warning 5 minutes after we were being blown over and pounded in to the ground by the rain. i like the rain for the most part but when it rains for 4 and 5 days in a row and can't stay dry to save our lives then i get sick of it really fast. thats about how things were about 2 weeks ago.

your life back home seems to be as crazy or more than mine has been this last week. I'm glad to hear that everything is working out for ya'll. take care and i will write again next week.

Sincerely

Elder Ogilvie

25 Nov 2013

Dear Mom,

last Monday night at 7:30 while way out in the middle of nowhere. we got a call from president Craig... he told me that i will be training a new missionary... transfers are tomorrow. if you wondered why this email didn't come yesterday that is why.

i only have CD's and they don't do me much good at this point since we don't have a car though here we have a stereo system, so we can have music at night. if however i m going to be able to listen to music though the rest of the mission it will need to be on an Ipod.

so the reason i wanted to know how i relate to glen is that one of the members here is the grandson of Glen Ogilvies' best friend during WW II and who's wife is now spending quite a bit of time with Glen. that's what I've heard from the member here.

that is exciting that RSL is on their way to winning another title. i will be cheering for them from gator country.

president Craig wants us to have 2-3 places to go and visit with members for thanksgiving. ( that's what he said on the transfer calls last night ). right now we have 2 appointments for thanks giving dinner. we are hoping that both will go through. ( maybe you could invite the missionaries to thanksgiving dinner if they don't have other plans already?)

we mostly go and help members to do their missionary work. we help them learn how to invite their friends and neighbors and even people they have never met to hear the restored gospel. and then help them to set goals for the number of invites that they can extend in the next two weeks. then two weeks later we get to hear their stories of how things went. for example we have a member who has a goal to invite 1 person every day. and another who has a goal to give missionaries a referral everyday. the idea isn't so much about inviting only those we think are ready but instead inviting everyone that we can, regardless of weather or not those we invite accept the invitation. its starting to work too.

thank you for all of your love and support. i will let you have your Tuesday morning back now. i hope ya'll have a wonderful thanksgiving and Christmas season. Love Ya'll.

Sincerely,

Elder Ogilvie

18 Nov 2013

Dear Mom,

yes i did finally get the letter you sent me. and i thought i did send that check to you. though it might be in one of the boxes that i sen't home. one of them was full of the letters that i received while I've been out. and i just don't have the space to keep carrying around with me and other extra stuff. i would suggest checking there. it might be in there. other than that i am pretty sure i don't have but i will check anyway.

the last week here was another zone conference. this time it was just us missionaries. nothing to exciting. oh and it did rain here for at least 4 days straight. which is unusual considering that it will rain for 5 minutes and quit for 5 days and start all over the next day. i'm just happy its not snowing down here though it was most certainly very cold. this last week. if anything there was one day it was not far from freezing out side.

no they haven't told us anything about leaving the chapels open with missionaries in side quite yet. of the changes they have told us about is the giving of iPad to missionaries who are ready to receive them. rumor says they are coming the beginning of next year but we will see. i suspect that it will be longer than that.

this week was almost nothing but service. we helped at least 3 families move across the ward. none of them left the ward but they moved from one ward boundary to the other. which has meant moving some big and heavy pieces of furniture. it was easy though because the whole of the elders quorum showed up for one of the moves. us and the 3rd ward elders helped with the other big move. groups of 6 or more people move things very quickly.

i don't have any special requests for my birthday. music would be appreciated though. i can't really think of anything that i need at the moment. i just had to order new scriptures because the binding on my quad busted. everything is going good here. i hope everything is still OK at home.

Sincerely,

Elder Ogilvie,

11 Nov 2013

dear mom,

its been a week that's for sure. i got the picture of champ, i miss that dog. i thought the picture was funny. the principle of opposition in all things is certainly true. for as many things that have gone wrong there are equally as many that have gone right more actually. we have investigators who are actually beginning to progress.

we have another zone conference that is coming up this week even after having one just last week with elder zwick of the seventy. don't ask me why. there is definatly a focus on doing missionary work now. the surge of missionaries can be seen as "the end soon coming" the goal is to save as as many as we can "while the sun still shines". the ward here is really focusing on the work. we have been going around to every members home helping them to set up and put in to effect their family mission plans. so we have been very busy trying to get to every family in the ward. at least in our area to work in which is the city part of the ward boundaries.

there isn't much that i have to leave a report on this week. i hope ya'll are doing well back home.

Sincerely,
Elder Ogilvie

28 Oct 2013

Dear mom,

this week has been one of a lot of member missionary work, we have had several members come out and work with us. this is the first ward that i have served in that has really put a major effort into doing what the lord wants them to do. the ward here really is amazing.

my companion is only 18 so there is five years between us and we are very different people, so it has been quite an adjustment, though that happens with every companion. personally i am really enjoying Gainesville. as far as snakes are concerned i have seen very few. I've only seen little baby snakes here and there nothing big. we did service for a member who had a nest of baby black racers in her front yard. (completely harmless snakes) elder Andersen is however completely afraid of snakes of any kind. which made the whole thing hilarious for the rest of us but terrifying for him. i almost wish i had my camera on me at the time. if there is any thing i miss now that i'm in Gainesville it would be the fact that there are now trees everywhere again, and there is no flat land or marshes that makes the place rally beautiful. also people tend to be a lot kinder and personable when the branch only consists of 50 active members and not nearly 200. but there are a lot of very good people in that 200 just like the branch of 50.

we rely quite a bit on members to get us to and from every major appointment considering how far we have to bike between places. we could Literally spend almost a full half hour biking between appointments and we are only in a little corner of Gainesville. the two sets of sisters cover the other two-thirds of the ward. speaking of which do you have multiple sets of missionaries in your ward? or is Utah so full of wards that your lucky to have 1 set for every two wards?

i'm sure the family that has moved in to the Lombardy house will love it there. what are you going to do about the basement? did you just leave it partially finished? what is the next big project at home? i hope dad gets the Saturn put back the way its suppose to go. that's sad to hear that it broke down again especially since it just had a redone motor put in it. oh well.

hope everything is well back home. say hi to everyone for me.

Sincerely,

Elder Ogilvie