Received May 24, 2010
Buenos Dias!
I hope that you all are having a great week so far and that your week last week was just incredible! It's exciting to hear that Tyler and Jason and now home from their missions and that they were able to give great homecoming talks! Tell them "Hi" for me. It sounds like they did a great job! I hope the adjustment back to non-mission life goes well for them.
As far as the rest of you it sounds like things are winding down with school and that the kids are getting more and more excited. I can't believe that this is the end of the school year! Where in the world did the year go? Anyways, good luck mom with trying to control the kids this week! And I hope everyone else has a fun week trying to stay calm.
I love you guys and I hope that all is going well back home! Thanks again for the emails everyone. So I found out this week that we are going to be changing apartments soon. Sad I know because the apartment we are in now is incredible! But it will be good because we live about 15 minutes away from the main part of the city in which we live. Which means 15 minutes from the church which tends to be a hassle! Anyways, I tell you this because if you want to send letters don't use the address that I gave you last week. Just use the mission office address for everything. The assistants are in my district and they are in the office a lot. We also have a couple living in our ward who serve in the office. Yesterday they brought me a letter from grandma and grandpa and they said that they bring us whatever we get every time they come out. So yeah, just use the mission office address for the few of you who are still hanging in there and writing. You really don't know how much it means to me! Your love keeps me going!
Anyways, enough of the boring stuff. This week was a good week for us. I was a bit discouraged last week because I went from an area that had a teaching pool of a gazillion people to an area with 2 or 3. Needless to say we did a lot of tracting and street contacting this week. We received some great blessings from the Lord and we are going to keep working with these new investigators to keep them progressing.
But by far the biggest news of the week is that we had the blessing and the miracle to be able to set a baptismal date with our good friend Angel. He is an absolute miracle for us. The missionaries serving in this area before us did nothing to find him. He was a referral from the office. Anyways, the man is absolutely golden. He has read every pamphlet that we have given him about the lessons and he is also reading in the Book of Mormon. On Saturday we taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ and when we came to the part about baptism (we read in Mosiah chapter 18 about the covenant we accept at baptism) we asked him if that was a promise that he wanted to make. He said that he knew that being baptized was what he needed to do and that on June 12th he would be receiving new life. It was an incredible experience.
I haven't really had that on my mission. I've seen it a few times but most of the time people don't tell us that they have been waiting and wanting to make a covenant with the Lord. Angel said that this is exactly what he has been wanting to do and it is exactly what he needs to do. Just an amazing blessing for us during a time where we have been a little discouraged by the lack of success elsewhere. It just went to show us that honestly we as missionaries do nothing special. This man was a gift from the Lord and I am so excited to keep working with him.
I also had another cool experience this week with a member family. The Alvarado family invited us over for dinner this week. This is not the Brother Alvarado who will be my new mission president . . . although he does live in our stake. At the end of the meal we sat down to share the message we had prepared with the family. I should also tell you that the senior couple that I told you about earlier in this email was there also. We had talked with them about sharing a fun lesson about the Book of Mormon with the family. We had it all planned out.
The dad sat down and said "OK elders now, I told you why we invited you over right?" I looked at my companion and he had no idea what the father was speaking about, and I had no idea either. The senior couple had no idea and so we all said "no." He said "oh, woops, guess I forgot to tell you. Anyhow, I wanted you to come over tonight to help us learn a little about how we can have more love in our home and how our children need to stop fighting with each other."
I was just a little stumped. I had no idea what to say. The lesson that we had prepared had just been thrown out the window. My mind was blank and all I could think of was just to pray . . . pray and the answer will come. I prayed and soon scriptures starting entering my mind. It was an amazing experience because the scriptures that came to my mind were some scriptures that I had read before but that I have not memorized. But there they were. And it turned out to be an amazing lesson. We saw the parents on Sunday and they thanked us again for the great lesson that we shared and for the help that we were able to give the family. I kind of just laughed to myself because honestly I know that we did nothing.
I love you guys so much and I want you to know how much I love you and how thankful I am for you! I know that this is God's work and that these are His children. He knows each and everyone of us separately and individually and He knows exactly what we need and when we need it. I don't just know that because I saw it this week, I know it because I felt it this week too. Prayers to help with the challenges and struggles and feelings of despair were answered by you guys and others this week. I am so thankful for all you do and for a loving Heavenly Father who is always there for his children!
I hope you have a great week! I hope that the summer starts to come so the kids can get out a little bit! Congrats Trent on making it to the end of Junior high! You are a stud!
Write soon! Your words mean the world to me,
Your Favorite Missionary ,
Elder Oviatt
oh p.s. the picture is of me last p-day on the beach by our house... jealous? :) Tracting in the tropical rain definitely has it's payback blessings
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