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

21 Oct 2013

Dear mom,

here is the address for the apartment:

(Mom or I can give anyone the address, if needed.)

Happy birthday Anna Swalberg, Heidi and john must be super excited.

here i am in Gainesville 2nd ward. we have 6 missionaries in our ward alone. we are out numbered by sister missionaries 2-1 the other two companionship's are both sisters and they are both training sisters who just came in to the mission. November should be the last big group of new missionaries. at least that's what president Craig keeps telling us. he has also said that starting next transfer missionaries will be staying in their areas from 6 - 9 months at the least. so i could very well be here for a while. also we do not have a car to get around in. not that we actually need one. everything that we do is all in the suburbs in our corner of town. we let the sisters take their cars out to the littler towns outside of Gainesville. there are actually 5 wards in the Gainesville area. and every area has multiple sets of missionaries.

yesterday, our ward had a musical fireside where members were able to share their musical talents with the ward and non members who were invited by their friends. there were two other wards who were involved as well including williston which was one of my former areas. so i got to see some people i hadn't seen in a long time. it was a wonderful experience to be there to see it.

the picture you sent me of the deck last week looked really good. i can't imagine what else you could do to make it better. now it is time for the next project, any ideas?

yeah i figured it would take a while for the missionary department to make another plaque, i ordered some extra tags since the ones i have, have become pretty scratched up. but i still haven't gotten them yet either. i guess since i have two plaques now you get to choose which one you would rather have. when they are no longer on the wall of the church.

dad will have fun at the convention, besides doesn't dad do more "playing" with airplanes than actually working? going to the convention does sound like a lot of fun though.

getting all of my stuff gathered back up shouldn't be that hard. there isn't all that much that i really need to keep laying around but we will see i get home a long time from now. for putting those boxes with primary stack of my stuff. it makes life so much easier to not have to carry it around. even with taking it all out i still had a hard time getting my stuff to Gainesville. the ride from transfer meeting was ill prepared to take 1 let alone 2 bikes from Jacksonville to Gainesville. i had to send half of my stuff with other missionaries who were headed to Ocala and were merciful enough to stop and drop off my stuff and the stuff of another missionary at the appropriate apartments. this last week has been an adventure, that is for sure.

hope all is well at home,

Sincerely,

Elder Ogilvie