10 June 2013

Dear Mom,

well, president has decided once again to transfer me. we of course already knew this. i did find out where last night. i will be going to Darien, GA which is another small town about ten miles directly north of Brunswick. (if you are trying to find it on a map like i did last night). it does not appear to be any bigger than Branford was. also my new companion will be Elder Mcfarlene. i will be staying in the Florida Jacksonville mission save it be that i get emergency transferred to the savannah zone in the next two weeks. i will be at the top of what we call the kingsland zone. (right below savannah). right next to the coast save it be some big old islands that make up the Georgia coastline. i will get you the address in the next email i send home.

i can say that i survived a tropical storm that came through Florida this last week. though by time it reached palatka it was just a bunch of separated thunderstorms. there were a couple of times where it was raining hard enough that we really couldn't drive anywhere because we would start to move and the rain would be so bad that the windshield wipers couldn't keep up with the amount of water being poured on the windshield.

we really have been working with our ward leaders in the last two weeks. they have made it really possible to get out to see as many of the less active members that we possibly can. we have also found that there are a lot of members who have moved that never had their records moved. so we have found that there are a bunch of people who have gone flat out missing. the same thing has happened to some of the investigators that we have had to work with too. however we have managed to rescue some of them from completely disappearing in to the darkness.

since about Thursday night we have had another missionary join us in palatka until tomorrow. this of course means that we have been back in companionship's of two. but that also means that we have gone back to sharing the car and riding bicycles every other day. which has meant riding my bike in the rain on more than one occasion.

most of today will be trying to fit everything i have with me in my bags. which i have mostly done by now. i still have a few things left. i don't really have a lot to carry around with me so that makes everything a little bit easier to.

thank you for the messages that the kids sent. it sounds like they are all having fun doing what they want to do. it sounds to me like everyone has been really busy with some kind of summer/scout camp. when did Kendall start gymnastics? that was a little bit surprising.

hey Dylan, i think that is so cool that you are having a lot of fun playing baseball and that you are learning so much. i bet you will be really good at it by time i see you next. keep up the good work. i hope you have a lot of fun at scout camp, i use to love shooting, and archery. they were my favorite scouting activities. i hope you learn all kinds of useful things.

Carter, good luck with making the soccer team i wish you well with that. my companion that sits here now with me brought a soccer ball with him so we have been able to play a little bit. its been a long time since i played i know that now. its actually kind of surprising how big soccer is out here in Florida. more specifically palatka. we actually have a member who has played for a premier league in Liberia. so we got to play soccer with him. i hope you also have a ton of fun with going to scout camp. there are some cool things that you will be able to do.

Kendall, i know i wasn't able to be there to have fun with you and everyone else. but it won't be too long until i see you again. it sounds to me like you have been having loads of fun doing gymnastics. keep having fun and watch out for your big brothers.

i hope you have a good and safe trip home, which ever way you go. i'm sure there will be some kind of fun adventure to be had along the road. see ya'll in august of 2014, its a lot closer than you think it is.

Sincerely

Elder Ogilvie

3 June 2013

Dear Mom,

this has been another exciting adventure in missionary work. the 12th of June is my next transfer date. oh and it is way more than probable that i will get transferred. elder Cockrell will be training this next transfer. so now the guessing game for where i will go now. i am hoping to be staying in the Florida Jacksonville mission. i don't really want to be sent up to the GMM although i do have some of my favorite fellow servants of Christ who will more than likely be sent up there.

being in this trio has been a not so much new as a different experience. some times i like it other times i don't like it. it can be fun some times. other time i don't want anything to do with it. it will be like this for another week at least. hopefully no longer than that.

we have found a whole bunch of new people to teach this week. no one has really started going anywhere yet but hopefully soon. we only really have one baptismal date right now and that one is only hanging on weather or not our baptismal date can come to church this next Sunday. we really aren't running out of things to do. right now we are covering both the Palatka 1st ward and 2nd ward which is requiring us to attend both sacrament meetings so as to make sure we can get everything done that we are suppose to. between the two wards we had 6 non members show up to church which is amazing.

other than transfers there really isn't any thing new going on out here. its starting to get really hot out here to. i hope you are having fun with you grandchildren over the next few days. tell Carter and Dylan, and Kendall i say hello. also tell that to everyone else.

Love and miss you all,

Elder Ogilvie

27 May 2013

Dear Mom,

i did get the card you sent. was that for this week too? it is so much easier for me to do the emails here than it is to write physical letters, that and i don't have to check the mail box.

we had a good week here, between all of the things that members have been helping us with, and zone conference which we held this last Thursday. there has been a lot that we have had to do.

we were able to do the confirmation ordinance for the man that we just baptized last Sunday. this was the largest confirmation circle that i have been in so far while I've been out here. there was seven of us standing in the circle. 3 missionaries bishop and 3 others.

i have now been on this trio for one whole week. its been hard and fun, usually some where between the two. i am generally ready for it to be over though. we have had a lot of members being able to take us out to places which can be really nice because we can split up one of us can go with the member and the other two can go off to another place and we can get more done. i was actually able to go with a member of second ward who actually served here in Palatka about the time i came out. he got off his mission and then moved back here. what is even better is that i even knew him while he was serving his mission.

this last week has been the only time where i have had to cover two wards on the same day. and both wards overlapped. i went to 1 and a half sacrament meetings. only because there was a leadership meeting we had to attend. otherwise i would have had to be at both sacrament meetings the whole time.

by far Sunday has been the busiest day this week. that one and Thursday after Zone Conference. this week is starting to look like it could be really busy also. we will see as things come hurling our way again.

love and miss you all

Sincerely

Elder Ogilvie

13 May 2013

Dear Mom

I hope you had a wonderful mothers day! i wasn't sure if you had a way to Skype, i am glad that we got to do that. i'm grateful that the Cutrer family let us use their computer to do that. we will just have to wait and see if we can do it on Christmas.

Sunday after the call was just as crazy as the rest of Sunday. because we were just given a ride over to the Cutrer families house all we could do the rest of the day was go tract around their neighborhood. so for about 3 hours that's what we did. though we did receive 10 referrals to go contact, so we were pretty busy with those all night. we had to have the second ward missionaries come pick us up at the end of the day. but they were super late by time they got to us.they had to drive from the other side of the st johns river and they didn't leave until 9. now because elder Huntington is district leader. he had to drive to pick us up, record what everyone in the district did for the week and do everything else all at the same time. it was really late by time they were anywhere near us.

if everything goes as it should and as its planned there will be another baptism this Sunday. there are just some commandments that he has to learn and a baptismal interview that will happen towards the end of this week and it will all be good.

i'm glad that you enjoyed the pictures and letter i wrote on the backs. i should be able to send a few more now that i have access to a store that will print them.

i hope you have fun with you grand children,

Sincerely,

Elder Ogilvie

29 April 2013

dear mom,

transfers are on Wensday, elder Buhler will be leaving and elder Cockrell will be my new companion. i will be staying in Palatka the three I've been with for 6 weeks have been elders Holt, Huntington, and my companion elder Buhler. unfortunately elder Holt had to go home yesterday for medical reasons. so for the next day or so elder Huntington will have to run around with us. in transfer calls last night we found out that we don't have enough sisters available to train all of the new sisters coming out so there will be missionaries who will for a period of time train each other to do missionary work.

you are not the only ones who had to speak in Sunday the ward here had a missionary sacrament meeting. so our ward mission leader had to speak along with me and elder Buhler i spoke on finding "lost sheep" (less active members) and elder Buhler spoke on helping less active members bring their non-member friends. Sunday proved to be our busiest day last week. between speaking in church, and the baptism of the family that we have been working with since i got here. oh which reminds me we've been working with a family of 6 and four of them got baptized about 45 minutes after church. they also had a little tiny wedding right after church. before the baptismal service. we had a lot of people show up to that which made everyone happy. we are looking forward to their confirmation this next coming Sunday.

i don't know for sure when we will be able to call home on the 12th when i find out i will do my best to make sure we call when you can pick up the phone. thank you for sending me brads email address. i do have a bunch of pictures to send you if i can ever get to a place where i can get some good prints. eventually i will just send you the card after its all full. i have no idea when that might be.

I do need you to send me some eraser refills for the cross pen you sent me. the erasers refills you sent me originally don't work. they are too small. i would like for you to send me another thin journal like the last one you sent me. it has the scriptures at the bottom of every page. also some fine point pens to write with. by the way i like writing little. then i can write more.

no i haven't seen any gators of the animal kind though i have heard that they are running around in the st johns river.

i'm quite glad that Brightyn has her two parents wrapped around her little finger. now they cant get away.

its been raining on and off for the last few days. yesterday we had some typical Florida weather and it was raining on one side of the street but not on the other. love and miss ya'll

Love,

Elder Ogilvie

22 April 2013

dear mom,

we had a pretty busy week. we were always off to go find someone new.we did a lot of trying to find new investigators and it did work. its also been raining on us every time we have to go use our bikes. it hasn't really been raining super hard. just enough to make sure that everyone and everything get and stays wet.whats really fun to watch is how since its still hot out side most of the time the rain almost as soon as it hits the roads it just evaporates.

thank you for sending me the email addresses for the rest of the family. its greatly appreciated.

it sounds to me like just about everything has changed since the last time i got to see everyone and it hasn't even been one whole year. things change out here all the time i don't even know half of whats going on in any given moment because it probably just changed 5 seconds ago. that seems to happen a lot.

I'm pretty sure i told you already but i will say it again. not this transfer but the next one there will be sister missionaries coming to Palatka to serve along side the elders that are already here. so while BYU and other colleges are losing students, heavenly father is gaining teachers. so it all works out.

we do have a family that will with the lords help be getting both married and baptized this week. that is what we are looking forward to seeing all of that go through. all of the plans have been made now its all about getting it all done. there have been quite a few little miracles that have happened since we started teaching this family. and the closer that the baptism gets the more small miracles are occurring.

things are going pretty good for now. i hope that thing are still alright at home.

Sincerely,

Elder Ogilvie

15 April 2013

Dear mom,

thank you for the letter. it sounds to me like the family is staying busy. i'm sorry to hear that springs family is out sick.things have been pretty busy out here. yesterday turned into quite the adventure president interviews were yesterday, along with it being fast Sunday we also did not have the car because it was the other elders time to have it. so we took our bikes. the weather however was not going to cooperate with us. by time we got to our dinner appointment not five minutes later. it started to pour like a waterfall on our location. then it proceeded to strike lightning very close to where the member lived. very close (too close). we were also a long bike ride from both our house and the church building. we managed to get the Palatka 2nd missionaries to come pick us up. when they got there i had to run out in the rain to but our bikes on the bike rack. when i went out to do it the driveway and yard had flooded around where the cars were parked. the whole place was 3 inches deep in water. After raining for maybe 45 minutes.

that's about the most exciting thing that has happened this week. i am still constantly surrounded by other missionaries all the time. even if all we are doing is giving the car to other missionaries or getting the car from them. i really do miss being out in the country areas that i've been in. that being said i do like it here.

also i don't know if you know but they have changed the rules for who we can email. it has been expanded to include friends as well as family. being where i am now. its much easier to take the time to do emails, than it is to find time to write a letter. so if you could ensure that i have the email addresses of everyone in the family that would be nice. :)

Love and miss you all

Sincerely,

Elder Ogilvie.