Hello everyone,

How was Christmas? My Christmas this year was AMAZING!!

What happened that day that made it so amazing:
We woke up, did our studies, opened presents, and got ready for the
day. Shoutout to Carnegie Primary for the lovely tree and ornaments, I
miss you all. And thank you to my wonderful family members and friends
for the gifts.
Anyways, then the Cheneys picked us up. We went to the baptism.
Some background information on the Madrid family, some of which you
probably already know but, a long time ago, like 15 years ago Luis
Madrid moved to the United States from Peru for his job. He left
behind his family so he could get some roots planted in the US. He
ends up meeting Mormon missionaries and wants to get baptized. His
wife, Delina Madrid (my favorite person) told him not to get baptized
because they were Catholic (except at that moment she wasn't but
Heavenly Father knows best). Fast forward to like 3 years ago. Delina
and her three children and Luis are all living together again as a
family in Utah. Delina and the kids all get baptized as members of the
church, except the dad because he is Catholic. Now Michelle is serving
a mission in Riverside California and has been out for about 7 months.
When she left her dad wanted nothing to do with the church, he was
supportive but didn't want to get baptized. Then Sister Platt and I
come into this story. We start teaching him again, he has been taught
a lot. And one day we decide we need to extend the baptismal
invitation for the 25th of December, and he accepts the date!! Then we
switch areas with the Elders and they take over teaching him. Our
district leader asks our mission president to talk to Michelle's
mission president about getting permission to skype to her family for
more time so she can watch the entire baptism AND talk to her family.
Permission is granted. Okay well on Christmas Day we get to the
baptism and we take pictures and then we have technically
difficulties, because of course. But then she skyped in and opens Up
the skype call to see her dad in a Baptismal suit. And he said to her
the biggest reason he has decided to be baptized is because he wants
to be an eternal family and be sealed in the temple when she gets
back. OH MY GOODNESS WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE THE JOY I FELT AT THAT
MOMENT. Everyone was crying, and when I say everyone, I mean EVERYONE.
It was so beautiful and emotional and quite possibly the greatest
thing I have ever witnessed to this day. It was at that moment that I
truly realized why I was serving a mission. To see other families have
the opportunity to be eternal families and live together forever. It
was the greatest gift I have ever received. Then we go on with the
baptismal service with her right there, wow it was great. And then
Luis has to be baptized 3 times, he is way taller than his son who was
baptizing him, but it's all good because he got baptized. We, as
missionaries, sang "Más Cerca Dios de Ti." It was lovely. Then after
that we had lunch with a member family and got to skype our families.
That was nice. Kind of weird to be honest seeing them, but it was
good. Then at night a group of missionaries, including us, went around
Caroling to investigators, less active members, and recent converts.
It was great. Super icy but a lot of fun.
Oh I have a funny Spanish story for you all. So there is a big
difference in casarse vs callarse. Casarse means to be married and
callarse means to shut up. Ya see I knew the two different words but
for some reason when I was saying the closing prayer in a lesson,
instead of asking Heavenly Father for the opportunity to have this
couple to be married, I asked Him if they could shut up... Hermana
Blanca strikes again.... #facepalm anyways that's my life for you.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that you were able to feel
the love of your Savior around and remember the true reason for
Christmas.
Happy New Year everyone, stay safe and make resolutions that you will keep!

D&C 11:21

Con amor,
Hermana Olivas

Hello my loved ones,
So sorry that my past two emails have been slacking. So here is a
little recap of the past two weeks. This week was pretty great. Last
Tuesday we were able to do a session in the temple. The temple is
truly the house of the Lord. There is a peace in the temple that
cannot be felt anywhere else.
Last Friday we did Edwin and Stephany's baptismal interview on temple
square. We were in the north temple visitors center having a great
beginning of our lesson when the building had to be evacuated. So we
went over to the south temple visitors center. And while they were
being interviewed I saw VOCAL POINT. So that was pretty cool
#perksofservinginUtah other missionaries were jealous haha
Last Saturday we had the baptism of Edwin and Stephany. It was
amazing. They were so happy and they were just glowing. It was so
spiritual. Sister Platt, Elder Coldiron, Elder Esparza, and I sang
"Las familias pueden ser eternas." It was so great. They are expecting
their first daughter in Feb so they really appreciated it. Ahh I just
love them
Last Pday we did a zone wide white elephant exchange. Oh man when you
do that with elders the presents are interesting. Haha I ended up
getting a fashion runway model Ken.
Friday was a day full of Christmas parties. We had a mission wide
Christmas devotional and party from 10-4pm. It was great. We started
out with a spiritual musical devotional. Then we had a wonderful
lunch. After that we had a missionary talent show. There are some very
talented missionaries and there are also some not so talented
missionaries but they can make fools of themselves perfectly. At our
party there were some Polynesian elders so they did a few dances
including the Haka. It got so intense that on elder's fake tooth fell
out! Then we headed towards our branch Christmas dinner afterwards.
Yesenia and her family had their baptismal interviews and they all
passed!
Saturday was a beautiful day. All of our lessons fell through, and I
had to walk at night without a jacket, BUT Heavenly Father blessed us
with a beautiful baptism and wonderful weather. Yesenia, Elyzabeth,
Shauri, and Johardi were all baptized. Afterwards they all just felt
happy and full of joy. It was a beautiful experience. They were
glowing. Johardi had to be baptized twice (because his toe flew out of
the water the first time...) haha it was great. I love them all so
much. Geovanny didn't get baptized because he was not ready, and that
is okay. We want him to get baptized because he wants too not because
his family is getting baptized.
This week was great. And I know that this next week will be even
better. I hope everyone has a safe Christmas, filled with love and
joy. Enjoy your time with your families. Share the best gift that we
have been given, the knowledge of this gospel. I love the phrase
Christmas because if you say it in Spanglish its Christ MÁS which
means more Christ. Christmas gives us the opportunity to have more
Christ in our lives, everyday should be Christmas.
Love you all. Merry Christmas.

Con amor,
Hermana Olivas

Sorry that it's so late. Today has been crazy busy with errands. So
this will be short.
This week was good. Lots of amazing experiences with members and
investigators wanting to change and come closer to Christ.
One night we went to temple square because we were planning on going
to the family history center with some recent converts to help them
with family history work. They ended up coming really late so we
didn't know what to do while we waited. We asked the Temple Square
sisters if there was anything we could do and they said we could carol
with some sisters. It was so much fun. I am probably on 50 random
people's phones. It was an amazing experience to sing Christmas hymns
with other sisters, be on temple square, and be under a HUGE tree
covered in dazzling lights. It was a great experience.
We were riding on the bus this week and we talk to everybody, or at
least try to. This lady was exiting the bus and said "goodbye sister"
and then gave me the sweetest little note of encouragement. I love
random people

Sorry this is so short. Very odd for me. Enjoy the pictures
Con mucho amor,
Hermana Olivas

Hola everyone
How was everyone's thanksgiving? Did you all get stuffed? Was Black
Friday crazy this year?
As for me this week was good. One day we were walking and it started
to POUR. Thankfully Heavenly Father reminded me to bring my umbrella
for some reason that I did not know so thankfully I was a little
sheltered from the rain. My shoes on the other hand were absolutely
soaked... So that was a fun night haha.
My thanksgiving was good. We got to have thanksgiving with a member
family and their extended family. It was in Millcreek which is out of
the mission but we were able to go because we also have our
investigator couple, Edwin and Stephany, come as well. It was nice
having a traditional thanksgiving dinner.
On Friday night however, sickness hit our companionship. On Friday
sister platt felt kind of nauseous all day and eventually threw up at
night. We went in early and I made lots of calls and read the
scriptures. Then on Saturday morning I threw up as well #ohjoy so on
Saturday I threw up 2 more times and we stayed in all day until 5 pm.
Then I got to sleep a members home while sister platt did visits with
Elder and Sister Cheney. I learned something on Saturday though. There
are a lot of hours in the day. As a missionary we are up from 6:30 am
to 10:30 pm always doing something. On Saturday in between sleeping
and reading scriptures it felt like the day was sooooo long, but in
reality every day always has 24 hours. It just feel different when we
weren't able to work productively.
I have a challenge for you all!
1. Go onto www.christmas.mormon.org
2. Watch the new Christmas video the church put out about our Savior
3. Check out the rest of the website and share with all of your
friends on social media the true reason behind this Christmas season
and use the hashtag #aSaviorisborn
I am so grateful that our Savior, Jesus Christ, was born. Without Him
this life would be so much harder, but with Him we can over come
anything and everything. Please never forget the love that Christ has
for each one of us. December shouldn't be a month dedicated to a fat
man in a red suit, it should be dedicated to our Savior. He is the
reason that we celebrate Christmas. Let us not forget that.
I love you all so much. I hope you have a great week!
Isaiah 9:6

Con amor,
Hermana Olivas

Hola hola,

How has everyone's week been? I love hearing about your lives, so send
some emails! This week has been good. Transfers were this week. We
didn't change areas, kind of. Sister Platt and I are still companions
and we are still downtown. Our area now is only from 800 S 1700 S and
500 W to 700 E. And our car is now is with the Elders. So we are
walking and/or using public transit (buses, the Trax system, etc....)
But we still live off of 400 N haha we live WAY out of our area.... We
had a few fun times with almost missing our bus, or thinking that we
missed the bus and started to walk then the bus passed... It was
funny/interesting haha. Lots of walking is involved when you don't
have a car and you are late to your bus...
Luis Madrid is on date to be baptized Christmas Day!! It is going to
be an awesome Christmas Day! We are so pumped. His daughter serving a
mission doesn't know yet and won't until they skype on Christmas Day
and he is in the white jumpsuit for baptism!! He is no longer our
investigator because of our area boundary change but we are still in
the Arbor Branch. His wife adores us and is so sad to see us leave. I
LOVE THEM! But it's all good because they feed us weekly and we go to
church with them.
Yesenia and her family have been good. They didn't go to church on
Sunday so that made us concerned. But we talked to them and decided to
push their date back a few weeks so they can get into the habit of
going to church weekly before they are baptized. I have faith that all
will work out. They are all very excited to be baptized but they just
need to be a little more prepared.
I got to go on "exchanges" for a few hours. My companion went to the
Bountiful temple with a recent convert on Saturday and Sister
Huxford's companion did as well. So Hermana Huxford and I were
companions for a few hours. We came out in the field together and are
in the same district so we get along super well. We are waiting for
the day that we can be companions!! Hopefully we can be companions
soon!
Interesting experience this week. We were walking to our next
appointment and we stop and talk to everyone. We stopped to talk to
this old man. His name is Doc and he is from Germany. He was very
friendly, and when I say friendly I mean that when we shook his hand
to say goodbye he kissed my hand and called me beautiful like 5 times
haha. I love street contacting. You meet a wide variety of people.
In the spirit of Thanksgiving this week I would like to share what I
am grateful for. I am so grateful for this gospel and the opportunity
I have to serve a mission in Salt Lake City. People think that there
is nothing to be done in Salt Lake, but they are wrong. Just in 6
weeks our mission had over 300 new investigators and 70 baptisms!
What?!? THATS INSANE. So I am very grateful for my mission so far. I
am grateful for my Savior and His Atonement. Without I wouldn't have
the opportunity to live with Him and my Father in Heaven again. I am
grateful for my family and their support towards me. What are you
thankful for?

2 Nephi 9:52 Behold, my beloved brethren, remember the words of your
God; pray unto him continually by day, and give thanks unto his holy
name by night. Let your hearts rejoice.
Have a wonderful and safe thanksgiving my loved ones!

Con mucho amor,
Hermana Olivas

P.s. I get to see the temple lights this week!!!!!!!!!

Hola hola!
¿Cómo están? How was everyone's week? This week has been great!
First off, if you plan on sending mail sometime soon, please write on
it somewhere whether or not it is for Christmas. They are keeping our
mail for Christmas until our Christmas devotional.
Last Pday we went to the Conference Center and took a tour. It was so
fun! We went with two other sisters in our district, they are great. I
will attach some pictures of the temple and conference center.
We had a really spiritual night on Wednesday I think maybe Thursday...
But we were going to visit a potential investigator (someone who's
contact information we have and they seem somewhat interested in the
gospel). We parked our car and started walking. It was a pretty brisk
night but we stopped to talk to a lady sitting on the curb. She was
going through a really hard time in her life but we were able to give
her words of comfort as the spirit directed. She was crying and
hugging us. We were about to walk away, my companion turns around and
gives the lady her coat because she told us she would be out on the
street that night. We start walking away, but I run back fast and five
the lady my gloves because she needs them more. We walked away a
little colder but our hearts were warm and we felt Christ like love
for this stranger. THEN WE PUT YESENIA AND HER 4 CHILDREN ON DATE TO
BE BAPTIZED ON NOVEMBER 28!! Which is in less than two weeks, but
through the Lord it will all work out!
It's funny, whenever we contact people on the street, they look at us
weird and say, "I'm already a member..." Well just because you are a
member doesn't mean we don't want to talk to you haha sometimes
members don't like random missionaries talking to them.
Cute story. We were knocking on a door for a gentleman who we street
contacted a few weeks ago. His wife and granddaughter were home so we
start talking to them. Eventually the lady lets us in and we get to
help her out with her remodeling of her house. It was fun. While we
were there we were talking to the little granddaughter, who's name is
Belle. So we said that she was a princess, but of course she already
knew that. My companion said "did you know I'm a princess too?" My
companion just so happened to wear light blue and have her hair back
so the grandma said "she's Elsa!" The rest of the time we were there
the little girl was convinced that we were Elsa and Anna. I love
children. So that's an explanation of the subject line haha
I love it here and I am glad that I get to continue my work here for
at least another 6 weeks. This next transfer will be hard because we
will be walking, it will be cold, and the holidays will be happening
so it will be a little rough. But I know that if we turn to the Lord
when we are down, He will be there to pick us up. In all aspects of
life, He is there. He will always be there. Never forget His love for
you and my love for you as well.
Shout out to Emma and Ben on their mission calls! I am so excited for you both!
D&C 64:33
Con mucho amor,
Hermana Olivas

My hearts and prayers go out to the people in Paris. I may not know
what is going on but I am praying for them. Hopefully because of this
people will turn to their Heavenly Father for comfort.

Hola,

Explanation of the subject. We went over to a members house to eat
dinner. We had mole verde, bean soup, and this salsa/salad thing (what
I consider salsa they call salad... no sé) but the salad had cheese,
onion, tomatoes, and what looked like peppers of some sort. But it
wasn't peppers it was CACTUS so I ate cactus this week. It was good.
This week has been good. It's getting cold here. And when I say that I
mean that it snowed. It didn't stick to the ground but the mountains
now have some snow. I her it's going to be a cold winter, I might
freeze, but it's okay because I love the snow.
I love the area I serve in. I love having to opportunity to drive
through downtown every day. I love all of the different houses in
downtown as well. Most are old and small but sometimes there will be a
random large modern house in the neighborhood. I love that all the
houses are different. It's weird to think that I am in downtown at
times because downtown salt lake is NOT like downtown Las Vegas. In
Las Vegas you wouldn't walk around at night in downtown, but here it's
pretty safe. It's a small town feel but I am in the heart of the city.
This week I had the opportunity to go on exchanges. An exchange is
when one companionship goes with another companionship and they switch
companions for 24 hours. I was able to go to Sister Greens area with
her and her companion went with my companion to our area. I had the
opportunity to serve in an English area in Rose Park. Usually Rose
Park has a bad rep from members in my area because a long time ago it
was ghetto. But it's cleaned up now. The boundaries of the stake are
basically the boundaries of my home Ward. It's crazy. But I got to
visit a family who's son (Elder McConkie) was in my MTC district. So
that was cool. I learned a lot and it amazes me how small English
wards are here.
Okay I have a question about the Catholic Church. Why is the Virgin
Mary a worshiped person? I don't want to sound offensive, I am simply
curious. So if anyone would like to enlighten me on this that would be
great. We work with a lot of Catholics and they always have Virgin
Mary's all over there house, but I don't ask them because I wouldn't
understand their answer in Spanish...
Anyways, funny story for the week. We were at a members home for
dinner (she doesn't speak much English) and we were talking about my
companion's accent. My companion has been told that she sounds
Argentinian but the member told her that she just sounds American. I
already know how white I sound when I speak Spanish but we kept
talking. Then Hermana Corrales (the member) makes fun of my accent.
Basically she was making fun of  American's accents by speaking
Spanish but sounding white. It was great. Hopefully one day I can
sound more authentic and not so gringa but for now I will just focus
on learning the language. Haha
We were able to go to a baptism this week for our Zone Leaders
investigators. We brought our investigator Yesenia and her family.
They all enjoyed the baptism and were able to feel the spirit. Yesenia
wants to be baptized and we are working on her family. And we had 9
investigators at church! That's more than all of the church attendance
for the past few feels combined!!
Oh Ana Maria Garcia, our "golden" investigator, has fallen off the
face of this earth. We haven't taught her in 2-3 weeks and we can't
get a hold of her. It happens. Hopefully she will want to meet with us
again and we can get her back on date for baptism. But I do have some
good news. Every Monday we do family home evening at the Madrids home.
Everyone except the dad is a member. They even have a daughter serving
in Riverside CA. The dad has been investigating the church ever since
his family was converted 3 years ago. Every time a missionary has
extended the baptismal invitation he has always said "no not yet I
need to learn more." While I was bearing my testimony at the end I
felt prompted to extend the invitation once more. HE ACCEPTED!! We
won't commit to a date yet but he accepted. We want him to get
baptized on Christmas, but we shall see.
I am very grateful that I am serving here in SLC. It's great. Granted,
I have had more people question and "hate on my religion" here than I
ever had in Sin City, but that's the life of a missionary. Miracles
are happening and I can't wait to see how everything progresses! Have
a great week mis amigos! Les amo!

Con amor,
Hermana Olivas

Hello family and friends,
How was everyone's Halloween? Did you all get a lot of candy? Thanks
for the emails and letters! They make my week! Oh an explanation for
the title. So everyone knows who elders are (male missionaries)
because they are pretty recognizable when 2 young men are wearing
white shirts and ties. But for sister missionaries people don't
recognize us as missionaries as quickly. So a member in our Ward calls
us Eldercitas not Hermanas. It's funny.
This week was pretty good. Our branch was dissolved (it is now
combined with another branch to make one big branch). It was kinds of
sad but good for both branches.
We were street contacting and started talking to a gentleman. We were
talking about Mormonism. He said, while drinking a beer, "oh I'm very
Mormon. My uncle is Robert Hales." It took me a second to realize that
he was talking about the apostle, Robert D Hales. Only in Utah will
you easily run into family of apostles. Oh and Quintin L Cook lives in
the stake I serve in... That's cool
I was curious to see how big our mission is compared to the Vegas
valley. I mapped out the time from the southern tip of our mission to
the northern tip takes 35 minutes. I then mapped out how long it takes
to get to desert book from my house at home, 40 minutes. So my mission
is pretty small compared to other missions.
Cool story. We were on temple square to do a lesson. This young male
adult walks up to us and askes if we were going to do a lesson. He
wanted to be a member present if we did. Unfortunately our lesson fell
through but we did get to talk to him. Turns out he served his mission
in Vegas. So I told him I was from Henderson. He asked what stake. I
said Anthem. He served in the Summit Ward but has family in the
Carnegie Ward. Turns out he is relate to the Kehoe family. Small small
world
Church was really goo this week. Since our branch got combined the
church changed to 9am. Both of our areas have church at 9 so my
companion and I had to do splits. I went downtown to the Arbor Branch
with a lady in my Ward. It was Fast and Testimony meeting, which means
members have the opportunity to bear their testimonies in front of the
congregation. I felt like I needed to bear my testimony. So I did.
Granted my Spanish was terrible and I even apologized for my Spanish.
But I could feel the spirit and people came up to me after and said my
Spanish was good. So I don't know if they are lying or not. But this
really adorable 11 year old convert bore his testimony. It was so
precious. He was crying and that made me cry. He has such a powerful
testimony. And I was able to understand it all. The gift of tongues is
real.
I hope everyone has a good week. My ponderizing scripture this week
is Alma 34:32, what's yours?

Con mucho amor
Hermana Olivas