How are you feeling?

So I am just feeling so excited and happy and joyful and blessed! I really don't know how to put feelings into words sometimes.... so this little girl will tell you how I feel: (click the link below to watch)

Little Girl's Daily Affirmation!

Picture Update!

Since I typically write very very very long blogs, I've decided to take it down a notch for this post to show y'all that I really am multidimensional... so here are some picture updates!

WE HAVE AN ADDRESS!!! Praise the Lord, send us letters and fun things! (it takes about 3 weeks to receive)

Address:

Breana Olivier  Family Missions Company
c/o Holy Rosary High School
Sagay Camiguin Island
Philippines 9103

This is my life.
The sunsets here are literally indescribable and are this beautiful every single night.
The water is right down the street from our Cottage.

Me and Genevieve rode on one motor and Alex and Rebecca shared the other for our trip to the opposite side of the Island for our day off! (yes, we are wearing linen, flip flops, and no helmets...Filipino style)

Fr. Joe's monkeys at his Convento (rectory)

Fr. Joe administering First Communion at a Barrio (small chapel in Sagay)

The missionaries playing games with the Altar Servers at our house after mass on Sunday!

Having too much fun marching in the Torch Parade with the students of Holy Rosary

Cheering on the Seniors! They graduate in March!! (I feel like I am at a Thibodaux Mardi Gras Parade)

Holy Rosary high school Torch Parade and Living Rosary to celebrate their High School Anniversary

This is Romel. He is a part of the group of men that volunteer for the Church! We woke up one morning to see a group of men building a fence for us. They have become our "Heaven's Handymen" and we appreciate them so much!!! Romel has taught us the true meaning of being a missionary. He serves others the best way he can by using the gifts the Lord has given him. He told us that he is poor, but the Lord served EVERYONE in need and so that is what he has to do as well because he loves Jesus.

After building our fence, their next projects were building a house for a family whos house had burned down in the Typhoon, then they will be expanding the cemetery, then they will expand the church garden, and much more.
They are the Saints of Camiguin!

showing off our new fence!

We love our precious little cottage!

Shout out to the Quinns in Mexico! We are praying for you and for all of our fellow missionaries in the field and those who are stateside and especially those working very hard in the office at Big Woods!

Our new dresser that hold all four of our clothes!!! We have FINALLY unpacked! And we found a little rack for our books, yayy!

This is Rebecca (the one standing). She is the ultimate "server" and is the perfect balance of Mary and Martha (high five yourself if you get the reference)! She is full of wisdom and cute skirts. Visit her blog: Finding Pasture

This is Genevieve Reardon. She loves to pose for pictures, take pictures, laughing out loud, singing opera, and talking in fake languages expecting everyone to understand. She knows how to project her voice and she is a LOAD of fun. Visit her blog: Jesus is the bomb .com

This is Alex Vidos, my team leeeeeeder. She is tall, chill, hilarious, full of movie references, and the perfect leader for our team! She was a missionary in Mexico last year for about 6 months. Visit her blog : Alex on a Mission

This is us on a small fishing boat. This man, Richard, saw Genevieve read her Bible everyday by the ocean and was impressed and said that he loves to read the Bible too! So he invited us for a boat ride. It was so cool!!!

boats and volcanoes

SOOOO incredibly honored to have the Blog of the Month for FMC!!

SALAMAT SA DIOS!!!

Mission is surely not glamorous, but dang shoot – it’s glorious!

Mission is surely not glamorous, but dang shoot – it’s glorious!

Since moving to Camiguin I have really been missing my family. I didn’t expect to have such a rough transition, but I miss those fools. Once arriving on the Island, I have been sick and hormonal which in turn makes me real emotional. Through all of this the Lord has really been speaking to me. My prayer time in missions has been phenomenal. The Lord has truly shown me that this is the exact place I need to be, that I will suffer, that he will never leave me and He will take care of me. He needs me to put all my faith, my trust, my worries, my fears, my emotions, my doubts, my joys, and all of my life into His hands. He doesn’t just want some of me - He wants all of me. I realize that I am holding on to some baggage from the past that is literally weighing me down and now that I am across the planet, I can’t complain to my family or my friends… I have to unload these bags on God (which I’m pretty sure is how He wanted it in the first place – bazinga!). I really have always liked the idea of letting God be my provider and relying on Him for literally all of my needs, but now that I am actually living it – woah, so overwhelming. It’s overwhelmingly beautiful and awesome and breathtaking and wild. He knows that I’m tired and that my stomach is ever so slowly adjusting to new Filipino foods and I’m hot and I absolutely hate lizards…but He also knows that I love sleeping on the floor, I love coffee, I love laying in the hammock on our bamboo porch with a book and an ocean breeze, I love the water, I love the joyous and precious Filipino people, I love my hysterical team, I love laughing so hard with them that I trickle a little bit (or maybe even a lot), and I love when I can clearly know He is taking to me when I read the Bible. The Lord has blessed me!!! He has sent me to an Island paradise amongst people who are so accepting and loving and so open to know the truth and to learn about Jesus. Even though my head wants to complain about all of my “sufferings” – my heart wants to leap with joy every time I wake up in this place. This place that the Lord has called me to by name! When He knit me in my mother’s womb He destined me to be in this place at this time serving his people in the way my gifts can be used for the salvation of souls for His kingdom. Praise the Lord!

This week my team and I have been talking a lot about our humanness. We all desire to be these wise and honorable young women who are on the straight and narrow path to sainthood, but we realize that we are also human and hormonal 20-year-old girls. The Lord has really been speaking to us directly about our humanness. Yesterdays reading from 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 was soooo spot on to our exact feelings and prayers this week. I personally had been feeling an attack from the devil this week. I could feel the evil one telling me that I am not smart enough or good enough to teach people anything in the Philippines. This had me questioning what on earth am I doing here? I have never moved away from home, I have a terrible memory which makes me feel like I can’t teach anyone things that I don’t even know, and simply I just don’t have the wisdom and knowledge or the eloquent captivating speech to get a crowd pumped up about the Gospel. LIES. These are lies from the devil. In that bible passage (1 Cor 2:1-5) Paul says, “When I came to you, brothers, proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.” BOOM.

I literally know NOTHING except that I love Jesus and He speaks to me through scripture and I want to go to Heaven and I want everyone else to come with me. This week I have really felt my weaknesses and I for sure have lots of fears and I think I may have trembled once or twice…but praise the Lord, this means I am a HUMAN BEING – just like Paul! My team and I - we’re human beings. Ahh, such a relief!

Please continue to pray for my team and I as we begin our first full week of ministry. This month we will continue getting our house together and unpacking and really making our new home feel like home and we will also be praying about what ministries we feel called to. We started a novena to St. Anne a few days ago so we can find a housekeeper so it would be great if you could pray for that too! We would love to find a woman in need who can teach us how to cook Filipino foods, shop in the market, how to wash clothes efficiently and hopefully teach us the dialect!

We’re still not sure if there is a postal system here, it’s looking like there is not…but we will keep checking!

Thank you for your prayers and you will always be in mine!

I am a Missionary in the Philippines. Woah.

Today is Monday, Feburary 3^rd and my team and I are on our 8^th day of travel to our Island of Camiguin. All of our plane rides were incredibly smooth for traveling with 23 people (kids, babies, and adults). We waited in ZERO lines, breezed through security and customs, and immediately got all of our bags. It was a miracle! Thank you SOOOO much for your prayers!

Just to give a run down of our trip: we flew from Houston to Russia to Singapore to Manila(spent the night in Manila)- to Cagayan de Oro (spent 3 or 4 days here) and tomorrow me and my team of three other young women will be getting on a bus for 2 hours to go to the port to get onto a Ferry for 2 hours to get to our final destination - CAMIGUIN ISLAND.

This morning we sent off the Malabalay team. We prayed over them and stuffed their bags in a car and they took a bus to Malabalay. Their trip will only take a few hours by bus because we are already on their island of Mindano. It was bittersweet to see them go because they have all the cute kids and because this means we are literally the last missionaries to get to our mission post. We have been waiting so long for this day! The "waiting" really has been a penance, but praise the Lord for the 9^th day! Tomorrow will be our ninth day of travel and we will finally reach our destination!!!

Our time in CDO has been really blessed and jet lag has been very present. We have been staying in the Convento (Rectory) next to the Cathedral. There are nuns, brothers, and priests who live here and we are just living amongst them. The place is really huge! Let’s just talk about Sunday…

Yesterday we heard the obnoxious bells around 4AM (or maybe 3:30am, not too sure). This was the first mass of the day. They had mass EVERY HOUR aaaand the church was never empty. It was literally overflowing with people. They had rows and rows of people standing outside of every entrance and even further into the streets for every single mass at every single hour the entire day!!! It was one of the most incredible things I have ever seen. Thank God the windows are all open so the speakers can be heard pretty much everywhere. The Cathedral is very large with two sets of pews in the center aisle then a set on each side aisle and then two in the front facing the altar on both sides and then a bunch of pews behind the altar and even pews outside of the church! (how many times can you say “pew” in once sentence?)

The devotion of the people is really outstanding and so heartwarming.

Yesterday afternoon we took a little Pilgrimage to the shrine of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We got to climb up the rays to the heart of Jesus where the Blessed Sacrament was exposed. It was a very beautiful and peaceful place!

Jesus, I trust in You

Please continue to pray for our team as we adjust to the Filipino culture, foods, bucket showers, foam beds, temperature, time change, language, and all that jazz. Also pray for our continued good health and for continued safe travels and protection from all natural disasters and that we can clearly hear what ministries the Lord is calling us to in Camiguin.

And We're Off!

Please pray for all of us flying to the Philippines today! We arrived in Houston last night and will be flying out around 5pm.

Pray for our safe travels with good weather, for the health of all of our missionaries, for all of our documents and visas, for all of the children to travel well, for our luggage to arrive to all of our destinations, and that God will multiply our sleep and rest.

Salamat sa Dios!!!

Wasting Your Life

Even though I have had so much support during my time home, I do have the occasional, "Breana, why are you leaving College and the comfort of home and all of these good (and holy) things? You are wasting your life."
Why thank you, I am wasting my life, glad you noticed.
But let me explain what "wasting my life" means to me…

In the past few months I have felt a deep connection to the woman breaking the alabaster jar over Jesus' feet. (Matthew 26:6-13; Luke 7:36-50; Mark 14:3-9)
Quick summary, she was listening in on a banquet Jesus was having at a Pharisee's house; it was not very unusual to have a woman listening in. (Pause story: fun fact that I learned from the late Fulton Sheen is that a woman in that time who was ashamed would wear her hair down. another fact, expensive perfumes would be carried around someones neck.) The woman was a sinner and Simon did not want Jesus to see that a sinner was in the presence of Jesus. Ashamed of her past, she began to weep at the feet of Jesus…then she was a little embarrassed so she dried her tears with her hair (because it was down). Thennnn, she doesn't just slowly pour the perfumed oil onto Jesus, oh no. She completely breaks the jar and lets all of the expensive perfume out. (Another fact: breaking the alabaster jar into a coffin was a tradition at a burial in that time.)
She doesn't just give a little bit to Jesus and saves the rest for herself. She wastes it all. All of her expensive perfume. Wasted. Everything she had. Wasted. Wasted for the King.
We should learn from this woman to give, to waste, to surrender. Not just a little bit of our life and not just a little bit of our money and not just a little bit of our perfume, but EVERYTHING. Our entire life. Everything.
That's scary…right? It's a little terrifying to give every single thing to the Lord. Why? Because we are not in control anymore. We give Him complete control.

Giving the Lord complete control will ROCK YOUR WORLD. His plans for your life are infinitely better than your own. My plan was to go on with my life, finish college in 4 years, live with my parents until I got married and bought a house, and work at the Diocese or something super Catholic. These are all good and holy things, I'm sure, but these are not the Lord's plans!! These were my plans and my parents plans!! I never gave the Lord ANY say so in my life and what He wanted my plans to be. I would pray, "Lord, what is your plan for me? What is my vocation? Jesus, I want you to tell me as soon as possible when will I get a house and when will you send me a man and where I will work and what is my salary and when will my parents let me out of this house."
But dude, I never gave Him a chance to say - CALM DOWN, I have something better. You want to waste your life? Do you want Me to be the cause of your joy? Do you want Me to fulfill the desires of your heart? Then walk out onto the water and I will take you. I will take you to the ends of the earth where you will have nothing, but you will have EVERYTHING you need.
I am totally dependent on Jesus every second of the day to take care of me and guess what? HE DOES! I want for nothing, I need nothing - He has given me everything! All I had to do was completely waste my life for Him.

All I'm asking is this… Do you want to go on the biggest adventure of your life-for the rest of your life? Then wake up, walk on the water, and give him everything.
The Lord has bigger, better, and more beautiful plans for your life than you could ever imagine. Stop taking control and stop thinking you are in charge.  Waste your life for Jesus.

Heaven Boyfriend(s)

Oh how I love the Saints! Ugh, they are just SO holy. Among all of the Saints, I have a few "Heaven Boyfriends" who are the men I just cannot handle. Man, they are so holy!
To name a few: Bl John Paul II, Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen, and Saint André Bessette.

Today is the Feast Day of the little precious feisty holy man, St. André Bessette (aka: Brother Andre).

He just looks like a little puppy. So presh!

Just a little bit about him… he was a very tiny man with a big personality, after joining his order he was given the humble task of being the doorkeeper at Notre Dame College in Montreal, he had a dream of building a shrine of St. Joseph on Mount Royal, people would line up by the thousands to have Brother Andre pray over them with Holy Oil and they would be healed, St. Joseph's Oratory in Canada is the largest shrine to St. Joseph in North America, there are crutches and canes all along the walls of the Oratory - proof of the healing through the intercession of St. Joseph.

Fun Fact: behind this glass is Brother Andre's incorruptible heart.

and this is the Shrine that he dreamed to build: St. Joseph's Oratory

and these are miracles: crutches and canes all over the walls

This little, simple, and humble man just said "yes" to God's call and prayed through the intercession of St. Joseph for the healing of millions of people. He would always say that it wasn't him-he was just the instrument, it was all St. Joseph. Brother Andre was truly pure of heart.



Reasons why I love Brother Andre: his pure heart and allowing God to make him an instrument not for a selfish glory, but for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

Reasons why I love Fulton Sheen: he is straight up, not afraid to tell a few jokes, and knew that bringing the Church into media would set the world on fire and he was one of the first tv-evangelists and had one of the highest ratings and the most watched television program in his time. Never heard of him? Watch this video of one of his talks: Venerable Fulton J Sheen -The Blessed Virgin Mary- The Woman I Love and follow him on Facebook. Man, I love this dude.

Reasons why I love JPII: okay really, everyone loves JPII. Such an awesome Pope, Theology of the Body, His devotion to our Blessed Mother, most traveled, loves missions so much that he wrote the incredible encyclical "Mission of the Redeemer"… such a good Pope. So deep. So holy. So good.



Who are some of your heaven boyfriends (or "girlfriends" for the male audience)?
Who are the Saint's that inspire you to be a better woman or man?
Who are the Saint's that challenge you or convict you?