Short week~

Hello, everybody!
     This week has been a short one since we had a later-than-normal personal day last week but a lot of good things were happening this week! 
     On Friday, we went to Columbus for a new missionary follow up. Brother D*****s brought us. He is in our ward and helps to find a lot of people through our internet program. I had given him my family pedigree chart the night before. In his family history research, he found things on my dad's side of the family. (My parents may already have this stuff but it was cool for me!) He found World War I and World War II Registration cards and a death certificate for my great-great grandfather, Dario Olivo. His signature is very close to mine and I felt so connected to my family in that moment. 

     At the training, we paired up with other new missionaries and I got to work with Elder Barnes again! (my companion from the MTC in Utah)

       We were on the OSU campus and we went out to contact people on campus. (It was still nerve racking to approach people) At first, we were just saying Good Morning to a lot of people but then we got a little more brave. We began to talk to people about the Savior and the Gospel. Most of these people were running late to class and didn't have a lot of time to talk so we gave them a pass along card and some information about the Gospel. We were giving someone a pamphlet when a man driving an OSU campus van rode up with his window down. He beckoned us to come over to him and then asked for something. All we had left was a Book of Mormon so we gave it to him. He flipped through it and said he would read it. We were so excited! We got his contact information so that we could refer him to the OSU missionaries.
     This is all I have time for right now but I love you all and remember to keep smiling!
Have a great week and I'll email again soon!
Love,
Elder Donovan Olivo

Hallelujah!

Hello all!
This week has been a pretty long week!  And today we get to go to the
temple!! I'm so excited to see a new temple and be with new people!

Elder Morris and Me

I also don't have much time to write so I will make it quick.

First, we provided some service sometime in the middle of the week to a 
Pentecostal pastor, Pastor Ivan.We helped by moving chairs and everything to reset
his chapel. Then we told him we would gladly accept any service
project he had in the future. Pastor Ivan lit up and said he
needed help making a curtain holder so it can block out the blazing
summer sun if they need to see the projector during worship service.
Since we knew that Brother M******* did a lot of home improvement
before, we asked him if he would help us and he came with us. We made a
great frame that would hold itself up so it wouldn't fall on any kids
by accident. He was very grateful and wants to help serve us by
helping clean our building or something in the future.

Elder Morris, Pastor Ivan, and Me

Me, Elder Morris, and Brother M*******

"It has to be very precise, Brother!"-Pastor Ivan

Second, one of our investigators, Na****, is a Pentecostal youth
minister at a different church in town. At our last lesson we invited
him to attend sacrament meeting with us and he said that he would go
with us if we went to one of his services. We had to get permission
but we were able to go to last nights' service and they had a guest
speaker named Brother McCoy. It started out with people coming up to
greet us as honored guests and welcome us and thanking us for coming.
Na**** wanted to introduce us to everybody and give us a tour of the
place. Then we sat in the front center pew because we were guests and
it got me a little anxious because there were probably eyes on Elder
Morris and me the whole time. They started with a lot of singing and
dancing. It was pretty intense. The guest speaker went up and
gave his speech and there were a lot of times when he or people in the
congregation would say Hallelujah or Praise Jesus or Thank you, God. He
did have some good points and it was an interesting, cool
experience.

Third, we went to the temple today with half of our zone and it was
pretty cool. The Zone leaders are in our ward, too, so they were able to
give us a ride to the temple. When we got there it looked like a
really small temple compared to Boston or Rexburg but it was still a
great Spiritual feeling before and after the temple. I am glad I was
able to take part in ordinances today and to be with other
missionaries.

These are the major things of this week that I have time to write! I
hope you all have a wonderful week and remember to pray always that
your questions whether of the mind or soul may be answered. I love you
all and wish you the best in your endeavors.
Love always,
Elder Donovan J Olivo

Gone Fishin'.......

Matthew 4:19

And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

Hello, all! 

I've had a pretty short week compared to last week but it'll be longer this next week because I won't be able to write until the 9th of March. That happens to be our temple trip day so that is my Personal-day.

I think I had mentioned most of Tuesday last week but here is the rest. We had gone to the C*****'s, (our landlords), house for dinner and it was taco Tuesday! It wasn't like home but everything still tasted great and boy was I stuffed! After dinner, Brother C***** and Emiko, their daughter, came with us to see Julian and how he was doing with the Book of Mormon. He had said that he started to read it and he could understand some things but the way it is written confused him a little bit. We helped him as much as we could and shared our testimonies but there wasn't a set lesson plan so we spent about an hour and a half there and we still had to plan for the week. We got home late and could only plan for the next day. It had to be a double day because we went on exchanges on Wednesday.

Wednesday was a little hectic and we didn't have a ride to district meeting so we rode our bikes to the church...which was about 6 miles away and there were parts where it was mostly uphill. The Springfield elders did a good job at doing missionary work that is not even in their area. Elder Caldwell and I were together for the day and then we went to the neighboring areas that were walking distance and started to look for potential investigators. The first house a lady answered and said that the person we were looking for no longer lived there but she would gladly listen to our message. We gave a ten minute lesson on the doorstep and she seemed really interested and then before we left, she referred us to her mother across the street. I don't know how but I found myself confidently walking up to doors and knocking  on them and I thought, "Who is this? I don't remember being this confident in knocking on doors." All in all it was a good learning experience and the Springfield Elders had a good time here.

Thursday was a trying day. We taught Nathan again and this time the Elders Quorum president, Brother M*****, decided to join us for the lesson. It was a very good lesson but he kept asking questions and he wanted clarification of what we believe. This is excellent for him being so interested in what we believe, there are just a lot of questions on his plate. We did manage to answer 2 of them and he went away a happier man. The rest of the day was just trying to plan and we went to knock on our investigators' doors but every time we knocked, nobody answered and then we were left wondering what to do next. So we went to the C****** household to use wifi for planning and they happened to tell us that they were working with a friend of theirs named Amanda. She has had a really hard life and she has been a friend of the C******s before and after their conversion to the church. We are going to help them plan a Family Home Evening lesson so they could invite Amanda and her family.

Friday was just a lot of planning, trying to get everything done, and coordinated for the next week. We did meet a less active sister and her mother as our last appointment before going home and they were really nice. They had a little black dog that was the size of a loaf of bread and she wanted to sit on my lap so I picked her up and petted her while we taught the Restoration, and she fell asleep on my lap. The funny thing was that when I would stop petting her, she woke up and spun her head around as if to say "where'd you go?" 

Saturday was so cool! I got to be a witness at the baptism of a convert and it was so cool because it was the first baptism in my mission! Autumn, the young lady who was baptized, is a convert to the church. 

She was very friendly and other missionaries that taught her previous to this transfer, came to see or be a part of her baptism. I could really feel the Holy Ghost there! 

Later we had to come home and plan a bit more but then we had to ride to a member's house for dinner. We stopped at a less active family's house that we have been trying to get in contact with the whole month of February. The O****** family answered the door finally and Sister O****** told us that Brother O****** just got out of a surgery for a disc in his neck. He was recovering well but couldn't move out of bed. So we talked to them and their daughter, Rena, for a little bit and they are so nice. They like to laugh a lot and I thought, "Why haven't we met these people sooner!" Then we had dinner with the M********* and the whole family helped us teach the lesson of the Plan of Salvation and it helped it to be understood a lot more! 

Sunday was a great day! Autumn was confirmed a member and Brother ******* gave a really great talk about prayer and he started with, "Whatever I say, you need to always remember three things;

1. Heavenly Father hears all of our prayers, every single one, whether it is said aloud or in the heart. 

2. Heavenly Father answers our prayers according to His will

3. The answers we receive are for our benefit to make us happy"

This made me listen a little more closely and think about my prayers and if I have seen answers to them. I have seen them always whether it is instant or some other time, the prayers are always answered. 

Well I hope you all have a great week! I love you all and remember to be happy!

Love,

Elder Donovan Olivo 

Here are some silly pics from this week :)

I'm not here to be average...I'm here to be awesome!

Hello, everyone! Here are a couple of fun pictures from when I first got here to Ohio. 

This week has been awesome for me! We are working on goals for Zone Conference and ours was to contact 60 people. I'm still trying my best to meet with people on the street. I went on exchanges with Elder Jackman this week and I don't think I have ever walked more in my life! 

Me, Elder Jackson, Elder Jackman, Elder Morris

It was really nice meeting people in that area, even if they didn't want to hear our message. We had dinner with a member family in that area and they were so nice to me while I was a substitute. The next day, after we had exchanged back to our normal companions, Elder Morris and I taught a man who wanted to know more about our church so we gave him a chapel tour and the lesson on the Restoration. He is dead-set on the Book of Mormon being something that was copied and pasted from the Bible but we will have to teach him otherwise next time we meet. At the conclusion of our lesson, we asked him to pray. The prayer started off normal but the intensity and tone of his voice rose to that of him praying as if our souls were lost! Then we ended the prayer and he was all normal after that! 

We went to teach a woman named Heather later that evening. She had just gone through a really difficult experience with her fiancee' and she really wanted to hear our message and what God wanted. We were able to teach her again with the McKenney family on Friday and she learned a little more. The testimonies of their family were amazing and they offered to give her a ride to church on Sunday. We were so excited to teach her and on Saturday the McKenney's joined us again to teach Heather. We asked her if she would come to church with us and she said yes! When Sunday came, we saved seats for us, Heather, and the McKenney family while they went to pick her up but unfortunately, there was no answer at her door and we were  sad she didn't come. Our other Sunday meetings went well, though. 

I got my first haircut in Ohio, thanks to Sister Butler.

Me, Sister Butler, Elder Morris

I have lost 20 lbs. so far with all the biking I do and I feel great!

 I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Donovan Olivo

Hello, everyone!

This has been a very busy week!

Tuesday was a great day. I was still excited from the night before because we taught a man named Julian and he was very open to us teaching him and to our ideas. He is of a non-Christian background but loves to hear about other people's religion and what they believe so we have another lesson with him next week. It was also hard to bike because of the snow flakes falling and getting in our eyes making it hard to see. So we bought swimming goggles to help with that and it does help until the goggles have condensation on the inside and you can only look down to see. haha

Wednesday was a really long day riding in the cold. We had gone to see less active members and part-member families that were on the ward roster so we could introduce ourselves, get to know them better, and welcome them back into the ward family. We went knocking on their doors and none of those doors was a plus. I'm not mad about it but it was really cold! I got to the part in my Book of Mormon reading where it talks about the Three Nephites and I just think it is so interesting as to their request. It talks about this in 3 Nephi 28 for those who want to read it. :)

Thursday started off with a hard workout that made my abs hurt most of the day. I thought I got enough of a workout on the bike but my legs are coming along and carrying me better on and off the bike. We went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders and it was pretty cool. Also, I got a break from my bike! On exchanges, it really isn't different from the everyday things that I do with Elder Morris but Elder Baldwin showed me different techniques of talking to people about the Book of Mormon and Restoration booklet. I'm still nervous when it comes to talking to people on their doorstep. We had dinner at our Bishop's house and the whole family was fun and welcoming! :)

Elder Baldwin and I

Friday, we did our weekly planning which is a big project and it goes over the whole week! We met more members (the McKenney family) for dinner. We had an excellent time sharing the Restoration lesson with them and I could just feel the Spirit so strongly as we spoke. It was one of the greatest times on my mission so far when it comes to teaching lessons.

Saturday, I was really excited about the mission, gaining traction after Elder Morris and I got doubled in and picking up where the other missionaries left off. We went to go teach the people. I was excited to go teach but some gave us an address that wasn't theirs, fake phone numbers, didn't answer the door, or were too busy. It was kind of a stinky day but we did have two service opportunities and had an awesome time helping move a car and replace a car battery at different times. We did meet a young man named Demetrius and boy, did he like to talk! haha It was a little difficult to teach him the lesson we prepared and then his friend needed him so we rescheduled but he was nice. We also met Evan and Shannon, a young couple who are friends with members of the church and those members also happen to be our landlords. They were not really interested in taking the lessons but did enjoy our visit. :)

Sunday was a blast at church because at the end of Sacrament meeting,  several family members of our close friends from back home in Massachusetts came to me and introduced themselves and their families! I was so excited and it felt more like home. :) Gospel Principles class was very lively with Sister Eber and everyone was smiling and taking part in the lesson. Priesthood hour was very mellow with spikes of energy as people shared their thoughts on Sacrifice. Later, Elder Morris and I had dinner with Bishop Lutz and his family and we ate Philly Cheese Steaks! There was also a surprise Valentine's Day package from home for Elder Morris and me which made my day brighter and more exciting! Thanks, Mom! :)

Monday was my first Zone conference and it was really long, like seven hours long but I did learn a lot about finding faith to teach and attributes of a missionary. I need to work on a few of them like being Bold, Relatable, and Genuine. I still am a little nervous about talking to people which sounds like a shock to some but it happens every so often.  We also met a family who thought it was a coincidence that we met them but we don't think so because we had not planned to be in their area. We had an awesome lesson with them and we left them with a Book of Mormon and we are hoping to teach them on Thursday but we shall see!

I have been getting better at dealing with the work there is to do and with how busy we are as missionaries. I know that this work is a great one and that people are waiting to be found every day. We are on the Lord's errand here in Ohio but one great thing I learned is that the Holy Ghost helps teach more powerfully than someone that speaks or writes without the power of the Holy Ghost. I encourage everyone to read 2 Nephi 33:1 and find out for themselves.

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love always,

Elder Donovan Olivo  :)

"The Book Is Blue And The Church Is True"

Hello, Everyone! I'm glad everyone is doing well and I'm so happy that you're happy! :) I hope Pop recovers well from his eye surgery. He is in my prayers. When I arrived in Ohio with the other missionaries, we met President and Sister Daines and we went to OSU with them. Then missionaries who were already there took us to OSU so we could go tracting with them. My companion for that time period was Elder Brown. He gave me a Book of Mormon and challenged me to pass it out and I DID IT! My first one on my first day!

Then they took us to the mission home for an awesome dinner-Smoked Brisket from their own smoker. (Dad, it was DELICIOUS!)

Thursday, we met our new companions. My companion is Elder Morris who will be training me for the next 12 weeks. He's so positive and ready to get to work! Everyone has told me I got the cream of the crop for my companion! I'm trying to learn the best I can from him and he is helping me to do my best.

We are in a "bike only" area and that is one of the obstacles I'm going to have to overcome because I'm not a biker and my legs are tired every night! Biking is really hard so far but I've been gaining progress. 

We have already been threatened and had doors slammed in our faces but also found many people we could teach and many who are interested in taking our pass along cards. This is going to be a hard time in my mission but I'm going to do my best to make it work. The book is blue and the church is true!! My new favorite scripture is 3 Nephi 18:21 which says, "Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed." I pray for you all and I love you so much! I hope you all have a wonderful week!

~Elder Donovan J. Olivo 

 My new mailing address for letters is:

Elder Donovan Olivo

5094 Nebraska Ave. Huber Heights, OH 45424

If you want to send a package, please let Mom know and she can give you the address which is a different address.

This is me with my companion, Elder Morris, and a former missionary who came back to visit the mission, Christian Hildebrandt.

Last Post from the MTC....Columbus, Ohio-Here I Come!

Hello All!

This week has been really crazy! Last Wednesday we got back into the swing of things after P-day and we were ready to teach our investigators but for me and Elder Barnes our 3 lessons were all excellent!  I felt pretty good about that day, especially because I got Birthday packages of delicious goodies to eat right before bed!! Dont worry I brushed my teeth!:D

Thursday was my 21st Birthday and I believe it was one of the best I've had so far! I had a great morning. My morning teacher, Sister Martin, and my district sang Happy Birthday to me after breakfast. Then we had class, lunch and Volleyball right after lunch! I had to leave volleyball early so I could accompany Elder Morre to the Doctor's office. I didn't mind that I was missing volleyball because I was having a great day and helping a good friend. Then on the way back to get dressed for class, we stopped and got the mail and all the letters I was sent on my Birthday were in the box! I read them and felt all the love and I thank you for your love and support and making my day a little brighter! I was a little homesick but I know that this is where I need to be and I am so happy that I have been able to experience this mission. :) As we got back to class I noticed a can of sour cream and onion Pringles, box of Mike and Ikes, a bottle of Sprite, and a little take out box of food with the tag "Elder Oreeeo" on top with mint Oreos inside. In front of all that was a Card labeled Happy Birthday and signed by all the sisters in my Zone, (West, Leavitt, Bronson, Elizondo, Jensen, Barnes, Lowe, and Sandall), and it made me even happier. Then my day was topped off by another day of excellent lessons and my whole Zone singing Happy Birthday again at Dinner. This was one of the most spiritual and blessed birthdays I have ever had and I loved every bit of it! :D

Friday was a tough day with some of our Investigators but with one we had achieved our goal before we even knew it. Kai, was an investigator taught by Elder Barnes and I and also Elders Smith and Muir from District C. We had been getting close to him being baptized but Elder Smith and I bore our testimonies to him when all four of us taught Friday night and I have felt the Spirit so strongly and I can tell you that there was not a dry eye in the room. Kai then shows us a picture of him being baptized a little over a year ago and it hit us hard. We were so happy but couldn't really talk because of tears and trying to keep it together. He leaves for his mission in 2 1/2 weeks!

Saturday was a normal day of class but the one thing I can tell you is that the Elders in my zone didn't want me to miss zone prayer and seeing as I was the only one missing they came to find me. I was just taking a shower and they called to me, "Elder Olivo, we are going to say prayer in here with you outside the shower, are you ready?" Thinking it a bit weird, I said yes and they said a prayer and it was kind of hilarious but yeah, they didn't want to leave me out.

Sunday was great and we had our walk to the temple and we got pictures with our whole Zone and our Branch President and his wife. I love it here because the Spirit is so strong and when I hear other people's testimonies, I feel such joy in my own heart and every one has shared some thought about me, thanks to our District meeting activity on Sunday evening, and it was all so nice :)

Monday was our last day with our teachers and we had excellent studies and gave our teachers letters to let them know we are grateful for them and the many things we have learned and the Spirit we have felt while being here and being taught.

I love you all and hope you all have an amazing week.

With Love,

-- 

Elder Donovan J. Olivo

The Provo Temple

This is my District

These are the boys in my zone!

The District with Sister Martin