Update

We received the following email from Elder Olivier on November 21, 2022.

Hello Everyone!

Here's an update from the past couple of weeks-

-our friend Sandra was baptized and confirmed!

-Our friend Neda was baptized and confirmed! She is from Iran and reads the Book of Mormon in Farsi!

-It's starting to get super cold out here

-had zone conference this week! It was super awesome to see all the other missionaries in the Chicago zone! It was really inspiring. We talked a lot about coordinating with church members to show love others. It was really fun to apply what we learned. We had some amazing faoth-building discussions with members!

That was just a quick summary of the past few weeks. Hopefully I'll have more pictures next time!

Baptism, haunted house, transfers, etc.

We received the following email from Elder Olivier on October 24, 2022.

I don't remember when I sent an email last but I know it's been a while. 6 weeks ago I started training a new missionary, Elder Skyles from Arizona. He's awesome and we're super excited for another transfer together! Some memorable events over the past couple months include the following -

- Tishi and Sebastian's baptism! It was super awesome to see them grow closer to God while we helped them towards this. We met Tishi when she and her cousin Ashley put in request online to meet with missionaries. Ashley is also preparing for baptism! 

- We helped this couple move out of the dirtiest, stinkiest house I'd ever entered, seen or smelled. The floor was coated with a layer of brown gunk.

- there was another community event at the Hyde Park church building. Bishop Pope ran a haunted house for 6 nights during  a period of 2 weeks. All the missionaries in the area had to help out. We helped out for 5 nights and it was super fun. Each night we had different jobs, including being a scarer or a tour guide. My companion I had roles such as Santa, the Easter Bunny, mad scientist, archeologist, clown, and mummy. I think around 3,000 people came over the 2 weeks.

This week we had a pretty good Elders Quorum lesson about Elder Rasband's talk from general conference (by the way Elder Rasband is Sister Chase's dad). We talked about the power of the Book of Mormon and watched a powerful testimony of it by Elder Holland. 

I have to go but have a fantastic week (Or whatever period of time until I write my next email)

Elder Olivier

Week

We received the following email from Elder Olivier on September 6, 2022. 

It's been a little while since I've last emailed. We're teaching a lot of really cool people.

Sebastian- he's 17 and loves skateboarding. We met him in the lobby of our apartment complex. He's come to church a couple of times now and he's enjoying it! He's reading the Book of Mormon and praying to see if it's the word of God.

Tishi, Ashley and Diva- Ashley and Tishi are cousins and Diva is their friend they bring to the lessons. They have come to church a few times and Tishi is working towards baptism on the 17th!

Harry- super cool guy in his 60s I think. He has lived in Puerto Rico, Spain, and Korea and is also studying French so he's a multilingual guy. We sometimes speak Spanish together cause he wants to help me practice. He's seen missionaries in Korea and was super impressed with their language abilities so he came up and talked to us one day and that's how we met. He's come to church a couple times and is super interested!

A few other things have happened since I last emailed- Eldon, a 19-year-old from the Philippines went on splits with us last Thursday in preparation for his mission! In conclusion, missions are super awesome. 

Have an excellent week!

Elder Olivier

Random Group Pics

We've pulled several pictures of Elder Olivier from random places. Several zone conferences and mission events. 

Photos

 We received a few random photos  on June 6, 2022 with Elder Olivier.

The following are from a church activity. 

The following are from bike ride along Lake Michigan.

The field is white

We received the following email from Elder Olivier on July 25, 2022. 

As mentioned in the previous email, I was moved to a new area, still serving in the same ward in Hyde Park though. This new area is super cool- there are so many people and so much city! One of the coolest things about that is there are tons of people from all over the world. Every once in a while I hear someone speaking Russian and it's so fun to talk to them! Yesterday we got a flat tire so we went to a park bench to sit down so we could fix it. Next to the bench was a sidewalk which crossed a road 50 yards away. While we were figuring out the tire, a huge crowd of around a hundred people crossed the street and walked on the sidewalk next to us. This happened repeatedly for the entire time we were there. It turns out the Weeknd had a concert at soldier field which had attracted numerous concourses of people.  

On Saturday, we got to witness the fruits of the long- awaited labors of the handful of missionaries who worked with our friend Evelyn. She's been working towards baptism for 6 months and was finally baptized!!!!!! She was so excited to enter into that promise with God. 

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is John 14:15 - "If ye love me, keep my commandments." It's been so cool to see others make the decision to prioritize God through keeping the commandments!

I hope you all have the best week yet...

- Elder Olivier

Wear a helmet

We received the following email from Elder Olivier on June 20, 2022

Всем привет!

On Tuesday I was biking from the Church back to our area and there was a giant pothole in the road. I got out of the way and then looked back to see if my companion was going to hit it as well. He was just fine so I looked forward again but then I hit a parked car. I was fine but my bike apparently wasn't because when we started riding again the front wheel was wobbling so much that I fell off and got some road rash and had to buy a new helmet because the one I was wearing got all cracked.

We have a few friends preparing for baptism in July, but I just received transfer news and I'll be moving just one area north! I'll be in the same ward and everything which is super cool. There are so many people in the area I'm going to and I'm super excited.

Have a great week and I hope you all had a great Father's Day and Juneteenth. 

1. Some bullet shells we've found

2. Road rash

3.skyline

4.temple

5. Cool bridge

6.selfie

7. African food