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

14 Oct 2013

Dear mom,

i'm being transferred from darien, we already knew that. now i am going to be in gainesville 2nd ward. there are already apparently 2 more sets of missionaries in that ward, which make a whole lot of missionaries running around in the city of gainesville. i will know next week what my mailing address will be.

this last week has been a trip. we have found a couple of people that would like to hear the gospel. it happens predictably every time missionaries are transferred. speaking of transfers there are now about 300 missionaries in the mission that's about double what it was when i got in the mission.

i saw the picture of the finished deck. it looks good. sorry about the rain. on the bright side its not raining as much here as it has been for the last two transfers. fall has started to kick in so things have been a lot cooler here. it also happened to quit raining at the same time i finally caved in and bought a proper rain coat.

i am happy to know that grandma is doing well, she must like her new room a lot better than the old one. is really any different except that it is closer to the elevator? is everyone still playing cards there in Friday?

don't be surprised if a box comes home some time in the next couple of weeks. there is some things i am just tired of carrying around that i still want but don't want to keep packing from place to place. we will see what happens. extra clothes and stuff. when it shows up just put it with the rest of my stuff i assume its all still packed up from moving.

i can't think of anything else that is going on right now so i will let you and the family go. also did ya'll ever find both alligators? or are they both still hidden well?

Sincerely,

Elder Ogilvie

7 Oct 2013

Dear mom,

next week is transfers. and yes i will be leaving Darien, president Craig called us this morning to let elder smith know that i will be leaving and he will be training a new missionary. there are 34 new missionaries coming in this transfer. when i came in there was only 20 of us and that was a huge group. now to here that 30+ are coming with each transfer is completely normal. i won't know where i am going to be sent next, i won't find out until next Monday.

as for the hail, well the lord needed you to have something worth writing about this week. does everyone still get together every Friday night to play cards? also tell grandma Fowkes hello for me.

conference was by far the most exciting part of the week. nothing else even begins to be as wonderful and amazing. i know that some of the things that were said by the apostles and prophet were of great benefit to people that we have been working with here, and benefited some people i know back home as well. inspiration was abundant at conference. i can't wait until they finally give us missionaries a copy of the conference ensign.

so what you are telling me is that Brightyn is like the energizer bunny. she just keeps going and going and going... one of these days not to long from now she will be walking. very soon.

the next big thing is transfers, and at the end of the month will be zone conference and a special fireside with one of the 70's that about it. at least for now.

i will let you go, we have some other important things to do. have a good week.

Sincerely,

Elder Ogilvie