Homecoming and Release

Elder Olivier arrived home to the Philadelphia airport on August 19, 2023 and was officially released as a full-time missionary at President Brown's home. 

Last Temple Visit, Last Zone Activity, Last Supper

These photos were found on the Illinois Chicago Mission Facebook group.

Last email

 We received this email from Elder Olivier on August 14.

Hey everyone!

My mission has been awesome! I'm so glad I was able to serve the people of Chicago, Indiana, and Ukraine for these past 2 years and 12 days. This is my last week as a missionary and I fly home to Philadelphia on Saturday. I'll also be giving a talk about my experiences on Sunday, August 20th at 9am EST. 

My mission has not been easy, but it has been super rewarding! I'm super grateful for all the awesome missionaries and leaders I've been able to serve around. I'm happy to report that my testimony that God lives has indeed been strengthened as I've studied the gospel and been privileged to try to serve God's children every day for over 2 years! The Book of Mormon is true and Jesus Christ is the Savior!

- Elder Olivier

New Companion and Last Zone Conference

We received this email from Elder Olivier on July 31, 2023.

Hello!

I wanted to send another update about what's going on over here. Since July 8th I've had a new companion, Elder Bell from Idaho. This is my last transfer and I'm excited for these next three weeks! We've been working hard and it's been awesome!

Here are some things I found worth mentioning.

- I attended my final zone conference of my mission on Wednesday. It was awesome! I gave my departing testimony which was a super spiritual experience for me!

- After zone conference we were super motivated to talk to EVERYONE! It was really fun. 

- Another Elder found a Belarusian couple who we were able to teach! We invited a Russian- speaking member who was awesome! The couple agrees to come to church on Sunday. 

- we got free pizza twice and free ice cream

I don't have a ton of time and can't even write an hundredth part of what happened. 

1. Elder Riggs and I with the Vera's

2. Portillos

3. Bent wheel

4. Big cat

5. Bread with oatmeal

6-8. Zone conference

9. Can anyone appraise this artifact?

I'm back to the city

We received the following email from Elder Olivier on June 26, 2023.

Hey Everyone!

Its been a little bit since I wrote my last email! I was sent to a new area in Chicago! It's in the North side on the lake again which is awesome! The work has been great here so far a couple weeks ago, our friend Sara was baptized! The day of the baptism was super stressful because there was also a community event that the ward had been planning for a few weeks going on shortly after. Because of that it was harder to invite people to come and participate, but it ended up turning out very well!

Right now we are teaching some great people! One of them is named Rita. She's doing a master's program and Became interested in learning about the church after talking with her friend Kristian, who is a member of the church. Later we found out that both my companion and I know Kristian because he used to live on the south side, where both of us had previously served!

We are also teaching our friend named Willi who first encountered the church in the Philippines. He had seen the temple in manila and he also knew about the church's important role in and keeping genealogical records for Filipinos. So he's interested in finding more information his ancestors as well as learning about the church!

There are also tons of Russian speakers here. There are people from different countries in Eastern Europe as well as a decent amount from Kyrgyzstan that I've encountered while here!

Being a missionary here is so exciting! I'm super glad I have the opportunity to wear Jesus Christ's name on my tag every day.

Here are some pictures 

1. Wrigley field

2. Our friend Jemal

3. A view from the church building

4. Sara's baptism

5. Markquis after his endowment!

6. Uptown

7. A bridge

8-9. transfers

A week to remember

We received the following email from Elder Olivier on May 1, 2023. 

On Saturday Ray got baptized!

This has been a long anticipated event for me and Elder Johnson. When I was serving in Hebron in December, Elder Churchill and I went to stop by an unknown member's address that we found in our areabook. When we knocked on the door, a gentleman named Ray came out wearing a star wars shirt. We started talking to him and he ultimately said that the person who we were looking for, the previous owner of the house, had passed away, but he said we could come back and share a message about Jesus. The first meeting we had with Ray and his wife Krystal was stellar. We had brother Duran with us and they were able to establish a connection! A few lessons later brother Duran shared one of the most powerful testimonies of how he came to know the Book of Mormon was true that I and my two companions at the time had ever heard on our missions! I wish you all could have been there to experience it, but I don't think you'd all fit in the living room. Eventually as we kept teaching Ray and Krystal, two Sister missionaries were sent to be in charge of the area they lived in so they continued lessons with them. But since they came in, Elder Johnson and I have been asking about Ray and Krystal at every opportunity we got! It was a great privilege to be able to attend his baptism on Saturday and to see how excited they were! Brother Duran baptized Ray and Ray was smiling so big when he came out of the water. Hopefully Krystal will be able to have her baptism soon!

Here's a nice verse about baptism from Mosiah 18-

Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?

Elder Olivier!

Northwest Indiana

We received the following email from Elder Olivier on April 17, 2023.

Things have been going well here in north western Indiana! I'm so blessed to be able to work here. I started keeping a better journal recently so I can finally keep track of some of the stuff that goes on. I don't think I've emailed since before general conference weekend so I'll send a bunch of pictures with that. We're working with some awesome people and it's awesome to see them take steps to follow God! One such friend is Gregory. He's been meeting with the missionaries for quite some time now and he's been attending our weekly Book of Mormon class. He's loved being able to read and cherish more of God's word and learn more about Jesus. On Saturday, he was baptized! I got to play the piano and it was fun to see the different members share their testimonies and support him! I also got to play the piano at a baptism for the Spanish side yesterday.

There was way more to talk about but I'm unfortunately out of time!!!

-Elder Olivier

Pictures! And some words.

We received the following email from Elder Olivier on March 6, 2023.

Hello all. There are some things to update on since I haven't written an email in a while. I'm now serving in Gary, Indiana! It's a pretty cool place. There are abandoned houses everywhere. Also in our area is the house from the movie The Christmas story. We got a referral from someone living a few houses down from it so we decided to go knock on the door. A guy named Daniel came out and he was high as a kite. He knew who we were and had even read some of the Book of Mormon. Impressively, he was able to recall enough specific details about the first few chapter to ask us a question about Lehi's dream in 1 Nephi 8: "what happens to the great and spacious building at the end?" We answered his question. He declined further discussion, but he said he had something for us and went back into the house. A few minutes later he came out with two rocks that he assured us would bring good luck. 

In other news, our friend Assetou got baptized in February! She's great!

Recently I finished the Book of Mormon again. It's awesome, I highly recommend it. It seems like the closer I look at it the more impressive it is. 

- Elder Olivier!