Hello again back!
So I'm a little confused that i moved to the top of President Johnson's "favorite people" list. i thought i was already there. ;)
But anyways good news! I'm going to make it to the party! I pulled a few strings to get there but that's because parties are great and really really wanted to go. So now I'm going to drag "those other two missionaries" to the party with me. But yeah, departing missionaries for this transfer are leaving a few days before actual transfers because of Christmas and all that. So I'll be in a trio from that friday to next wednsday.
Currently our investigator quantity is lacking. We're having trouble with getting new investigators and then they don't want to hear the message anymore in the same week. But we have one great investigator at the moment. His name is Byron, we always have awesome discussions and last time we talked with him he said he was going to read the Book of Mormon to see if he needed to change churches. If there's anything to pray for right now it's him. Then there is a less active family that we are working with, they are the Baker family. Actually Bro. Baker bakes really good bread. I also finally got to eat some boiled peanuts thanks to them! You crack open the peanut which is all wet and it's really salty and sort of soggy. It sounds disgusting but i ate a bowl of them because they're awesome. Plus i had some chicken bog, it's got rice and chicken and other stuff. I'll send you the recipe, it's definitely southern though. But they have 3 daughters and 1 baby boy who actually couldn't walk when i first got here but he's running around now (I've been here a while). I'm really good friends with all there kids though and I'm going to get the kids all excited to go to church so that they tell there parents to go. Because the Bakers always say that they need to go, but they could use some annoying motivation.
I have a funny quote from one of the Bishops daughters who is 7. We were talking about what they want for Christmas and she said "yeah and if Santa doesn't bring it for me than I'll buy it myself." He has four daughters ages (12, 10, 7, 5) so when we have dinner over there it feels like home in a way. Because get this (the oldest takes her schooling extremely seriously A's or nothing, sound familiar?) (the second like to cook all the time and made us brownies, reminds me of someone) (then the youngest two are kinda crazy and they do everything together). So yeah it reminds me of home.
But tell me what time you want me to skype you next monday and coordinate with my Mom so that i can do both. Plus i can't do it before 10a.m. here. Talk to
you soon!
Love ya!
Elder K. Olsen
Elder Olsen is in South Carolina
Monday, December 12, 2011
Monday, December 5, 2011
It's Monday Again!
It's Monday again!
These weeks are going by way too quickly! Well it finally hit Elder Friel yesterday. We were at church and everyone just kept talking about how he was going home soon and how he only has one more Sunday left. I think it was just too much of a shock for him. Then we got a text today that he has to be at mission HQ on the 16 at 11:00am. Well the Christmas party is on the 16 and I was super excited for it and now i'm going to miss it. Plus I'll have to spend a few days in Marion with those two Elders (That made those Elders sound bad, but I love those guys they're awesome). But I guess technically Elder Friel is getting the worse part of the deal.
Well we have had a ton of dinner appointments this week. And actually the next two weeks are completely full. It's amazing how often we get fed here. But according to other missionaries this is the only area that's like that. Everyone else seems to be lucky to get two dinners a month. So yes i am extremely spoiled.
OH! I got an update on the calling home thing. It turns out I'm actually going to get 40 min. max. for each family. So 40 min for the Olsens, and 40 min for the Erdmanns. I thought you would all really enjoy that. So that is sometime on Christmas day. Now actually i am allowed to skype, but that would mean i would have to find someone who can use skype. So tell me which would be better for y'all, because i can most likely find a family with skype.
You're probably done with Christmas shopping but I have a couple ideas. I think I said this last Christmas, but a pocket watch would be really cool. Something to plug my Sd card into the computer so I can e-mail some pics, More razor blades for my razor. Maybe a cheap hair buzzing kit. A fluffy pillow. more ties would be nice. Another watch, I like watches. That's all I got.
It seems like it's just one of those mondays where I can't remember anything that happened. My mind is totally blank and I'm trying to write a longer letter but don't know what to write about.
Funny story though, yesterday after church we got invited over to eat with the ward missionaries. Well I had two giant plates of food and was pretty sure I was going to puke right after we left. Well we got home and I sat on the couch not believing I had actually eaten all that. I decided that I was just going to skip dinner. Well then Elder Friel (who is feeling the same way) answers the phone. Then he tells me that we just got invited to dinner by a family in an hour. I nearly started to cry. Because the mom of that family owns a restraunt and is an amazing cook, and if you don't eat a lot (she doesn't say anything but you know) she will get offended. I'm still not sure how I survived through all of that. But here I am!
Have I mentioned by the way that I love my hole-e watch? I'm telling you I can't go anywhere without people asking me about it. It's like I have celebrity on my wrist. For instance we went to this mental hospital where people go into rehab. Well when you go in you have to take off all of your metal and stuff. So we went in gave the guy a blessing and when we came out there were four employees gathered around my watch. They told me how awesome it was and all I could say was "thanks." I really need to come up with some good responses about my watch. So if you have any ideas let me know.
But yeah that's my life, lovin every minute of it!
I love y'all!
Elder K. Olsen
These weeks are going by way too quickly! Well it finally hit Elder Friel yesterday. We were at church and everyone just kept talking about how he was going home soon and how he only has one more Sunday left. I think it was just too much of a shock for him. Then we got a text today that he has to be at mission HQ on the 16 at 11:00am. Well the Christmas party is on the 16 and I was super excited for it and now i'm going to miss it. Plus I'll have to spend a few days in Marion with those two Elders (That made those Elders sound bad, but I love those guys they're awesome). But I guess technically Elder Friel is getting the worse part of the deal.
Well we have had a ton of dinner appointments this week. And actually the next two weeks are completely full. It's amazing how often we get fed here. But according to other missionaries this is the only area that's like that. Everyone else seems to be lucky to get two dinners a month. So yes i am extremely spoiled.
OH! I got an update on the calling home thing. It turns out I'm actually going to get 40 min. max. for each family. So 40 min for the Olsens, and 40 min for the Erdmanns. I thought you would all really enjoy that. So that is sometime on Christmas day. Now actually i am allowed to skype, but that would mean i would have to find someone who can use skype. So tell me which would be better for y'all, because i can most likely find a family with skype.
You're probably done with Christmas shopping but I have a couple ideas. I think I said this last Christmas, but a pocket watch would be really cool. Something to plug my Sd card into the computer so I can e-mail some pics, More razor blades for my razor. Maybe a cheap hair buzzing kit. A fluffy pillow. more ties would be nice. Another watch, I like watches. That's all I got.
It seems like it's just one of those mondays where I can't remember anything that happened. My mind is totally blank and I'm trying to write a longer letter but don't know what to write about.
Funny story though, yesterday after church we got invited over to eat with the ward missionaries. Well I had two giant plates of food and was pretty sure I was going to puke right after we left. Well we got home and I sat on the couch not believing I had actually eaten all that. I decided that I was just going to skip dinner. Well then Elder Friel (who is feeling the same way) answers the phone. Then he tells me that we just got invited to dinner by a family in an hour. I nearly started to cry. Because the mom of that family owns a restraunt and is an amazing cook, and if you don't eat a lot (she doesn't say anything but you know) she will get offended. I'm still not sure how I survived through all of that. But here I am!
Have I mentioned by the way that I love my hole-e watch? I'm telling you I can't go anywhere without people asking me about it. It's like I have celebrity on my wrist. For instance we went to this mental hospital where people go into rehab. Well when you go in you have to take off all of your metal and stuff. So we went in gave the guy a blessing and when we came out there were four employees gathered around my watch. They told me how awesome it was and all I could say was "thanks." I really need to come up with some good responses about my watch. So if you have any ideas let me know.
But yeah that's my life, lovin every minute of it!
I love y'all!
Elder K. Olsen
Monday, November 28, 2011
Happy late Thanksgiving...
Happy late Thanksgiving back!
Well first of all i guess i should tell you about my thanksgiving day. Well they actually told us not to work on Thanksgiving so it was literally a holiday which was weird. So we got up like normal and studied and got ready, then just sat around. It got really boring. So we went to the Varas home at 2:00. We hung out with there 4 sons for a while. Their oldest son is 15 and is REALLY into pokemon. I have to admit i felt really old when he talked about it. Because he trades pokemon online around the world, and there's about a bajillion pokemon now. I told him how i always played pokemon blue and red. He told me that he had seen pictures of those games and was really confused when i told him that they were black and white games. It was really strange.
But then we ate and ate and ate. They made a turkey wrapped in bacon (hallelujah). Then Sister Varas made biscuits from scratch, those were ridiculously tasty. Then we had yams, which were really good. Then all your other Thanksgiving goodies. Well we ate too much and didn't have any room for pie. So we took a break and went to beach, it was amazing! It was at sunset, there were maybe ten other people there. I got some really awesome seashells. Well after that fun trip we went back for pie. I practically had an entire blueberry pie to myself. I love pie.
Well after that we helped them put up Christmas decorations. I have to admit it felt really good to put together a Christmas tree with a family. After that we played stratego with the oldest son. I played him first and was completely ruthless! Actually he almost beat me but i got lucky. Then Elder Friel played him and lost, it was funny.
By the way, have i mentioned that Elder Friel plays football for the U of U? Thats why he's going home a few days earlier, so keep your eye out for him.
Besides Thanksgiving i have to admit that it was a pretty slow week. We really couldn't get that many lessons. And all of the people that we thought were doing great we haven't been able to get back in contact with them. Plus it's been rough with it getting dark so early. People just don't like you knocking on the door when it's dark (even though it's only 5:30).
I've been using that camera alot, too much actually. When you use a camera like i do you just eat through the batteries. But on the bright side i have about 80 pictures/videos of me. So that should make everyone alot happier than my last memory card. Actually one video i even give a tour of the house which i think is funny. But that's just cause i'm (humbly) funny.
Church on Sunday was really great. Except a lot of people weren't there because they were out of town for Thanksgiving. But I'm at this point were i know everyone in the ward. It's great because it feels just like home. Except a lot of people talk differently, and they're not all telling me that i need a haircut.
As for games, i think Phase 10 would be okay. We could play that on Pdays. Right now we have a chess set, so i'm getting pretty good. Because honestly, we're running out of things to do on Pday.
But i'm really excited to hear y'all at Christmas
Love y'all!
Elder K Olsen
Well first of all i guess i should tell you about my thanksgiving day. Well they actually told us not to work on Thanksgiving so it was literally a holiday which was weird. So we got up like normal and studied and got ready, then just sat around. It got really boring. So we went to the Varas home at 2:00. We hung out with there 4 sons for a while. Their oldest son is 15 and is REALLY into pokemon. I have to admit i felt really old when he talked about it. Because he trades pokemon online around the world, and there's about a bajillion pokemon now. I told him how i always played pokemon blue and red. He told me that he had seen pictures of those games and was really confused when i told him that they were black and white games. It was really strange.
But then we ate and ate and ate. They made a turkey wrapped in bacon (hallelujah). Then Sister Varas made biscuits from scratch, those were ridiculously tasty. Then we had yams, which were really good. Then all your other Thanksgiving goodies. Well we ate too much and didn't have any room for pie. So we took a break and went to beach, it was amazing! It was at sunset, there were maybe ten other people there. I got some really awesome seashells. Well after that fun trip we went back for pie. I practically had an entire blueberry pie to myself. I love pie.
Well after that we helped them put up Christmas decorations. I have to admit it felt really good to put together a Christmas tree with a family. After that we played stratego with the oldest son. I played him first and was completely ruthless! Actually he almost beat me but i got lucky. Then Elder Friel played him and lost, it was funny.
By the way, have i mentioned that Elder Friel plays football for the U of U? Thats why he's going home a few days earlier, so keep your eye out for him.
Besides Thanksgiving i have to admit that it was a pretty slow week. We really couldn't get that many lessons. And all of the people that we thought were doing great we haven't been able to get back in contact with them. Plus it's been rough with it getting dark so early. People just don't like you knocking on the door when it's dark (even though it's only 5:30).
I've been using that camera alot, too much actually. When you use a camera like i do you just eat through the batteries. But on the bright side i have about 80 pictures/videos of me. So that should make everyone alot happier than my last memory card. Actually one video i even give a tour of the house which i think is funny. But that's just cause i'm (humbly) funny.
Church on Sunday was really great. Except a lot of people weren't there because they were out of town for Thanksgiving. But I'm at this point were i know everyone in the ward. It's great because it feels just like home. Except a lot of people talk differently, and they're not all telling me that i need a haircut.
As for games, i think Phase 10 would be okay. We could play that on Pdays. Right now we have a chess set, so i'm getting pretty good. Because honestly, we're running out of things to do on Pday.
But i'm really excited to hear y'all at Christmas
Love y'all!
Elder K Olsen
Monday, November 21, 2011
Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!
Happy Thanksgiving everybody!
Well first of all! Guess who got baptized! The awesome Jane! I was blessed enough to perform the baptism too. I actually did it right... the second time anyways. But i'm just so excited that someone got baptized, she wanted me to give her your e-mails so she should be e-mailing you soon. The baptism went great, we had about 15 people come, so not a bad turn out. But everyone at church was extremely accepting and open to her. I'm very lucky to be serving in Conway.
But i also had to talk in sacrament yesterday. I didn't have much time to write my talk and i sort of procrastinated. But i wrote it yesterday morning and barely used it at all. Honestly i got up there and the spirit took over. I've never been so calm to give a talk in my life. I was able to talk for 18 minutes too (elder Friel timed me). My topic was on missionary work of course, and hopefully i got the ward excited to build the kingdom.
Last Monday was funny, there's not that much to do in Conway on P days. So after we had cleaned we just sat there for a while. Then we finally decided we were gonna decorate for Christmas. So yeah, we got a tree and lights and decorations all over the place. Then when we were done with that we found a 750 piece puzzle. Got to admit i spent way to much time on that puzzle. But we finished it!!!
Well Thanksgiving is coming up soon and we've had lots of offers. But we were reserved for Thanksgiving about a month ago. We are going to have dinner with the Varas family. Which is good because they're a big family. But besides that i don't know what we will do for Thanksgiving. Because i guess we don't work on that day. I don't know why, everyone is home and that is the perfect day to catch them. But orders are orders.
I got the package! I finally can use that camera now, and i've been taking pictures and videos like crazy, and a lot of them are of me and not trees! One video is really good because i give a tour of the house. I took pictures of all the ridiculously big bugs down here too. I'm telling you they are mutated. Big spiders, big bees, big mosquitos, and big cockroaches. But i'm getting used to them (sort of). I do laugh that i got sent to the south for that reason. I don't like bugs (they're bigger here), i'm not a huge fan of dogs (everyone has one), and those are the only two things really. But it's funny.
As for other investigators right now we're kind of lacking. We've found a few people, but no one is really willing to keep commitments. So we'll keep trying with some of them. But what we really need is member referalls. I'm tellin ya, the church will build as fast as the members want it to. Because knocking doors can only go so far.
I just want to let everyone know, i write in my journal every single day.
I've been trying to think about things that i want for Christmas. But I'm not quite sure if i really need anything. If you'd think I'd like it I'm sure I will. But if i can think of anything down the road i'll let you know.
But i love y'all!
Elder K. Olsen
Well first of all! Guess who got baptized! The awesome Jane! I was blessed enough to perform the baptism too. I actually did it right... the second time anyways. But i'm just so excited that someone got baptized, she wanted me to give her your e-mails so she should be e-mailing you soon. The baptism went great, we had about 15 people come, so not a bad turn out. But everyone at church was extremely accepting and open to her. I'm very lucky to be serving in Conway.
But i also had to talk in sacrament yesterday. I didn't have much time to write my talk and i sort of procrastinated. But i wrote it yesterday morning and barely used it at all. Honestly i got up there and the spirit took over. I've never been so calm to give a talk in my life. I was able to talk for 18 minutes too (elder Friel timed me). My topic was on missionary work of course, and hopefully i got the ward excited to build the kingdom.
Last Monday was funny, there's not that much to do in Conway on P days. So after we had cleaned we just sat there for a while. Then we finally decided we were gonna decorate for Christmas. So yeah, we got a tree and lights and decorations all over the place. Then when we were done with that we found a 750 piece puzzle. Got to admit i spent way to much time on that puzzle. But we finished it!!!
Well Thanksgiving is coming up soon and we've had lots of offers. But we were reserved for Thanksgiving about a month ago. We are going to have dinner with the Varas family. Which is good because they're a big family. But besides that i don't know what we will do for Thanksgiving. Because i guess we don't work on that day. I don't know why, everyone is home and that is the perfect day to catch them. But orders are orders.
I got the package! I finally can use that camera now, and i've been taking pictures and videos like crazy, and a lot of them are of me and not trees! One video is really good because i give a tour of the house. I took pictures of all the ridiculously big bugs down here too. I'm telling you they are mutated. Big spiders, big bees, big mosquitos, and big cockroaches. But i'm getting used to them (sort of). I do laugh that i got sent to the south for that reason. I don't like bugs (they're bigger here), i'm not a huge fan of dogs (everyone has one), and those are the only two things really. But it's funny.
As for other investigators right now we're kind of lacking. We've found a few people, but no one is really willing to keep commitments. So we'll keep trying with some of them. But what we really need is member referalls. I'm tellin ya, the church will build as fast as the members want it to. Because knocking doors can only go so far.
I just want to let everyone know, i write in my journal every single day.
I've been trying to think about things that i want for Christmas. But I'm not quite sure if i really need anything. If you'd think I'd like it I'm sure I will. But if i can think of anything down the road i'll let you know.
But i love y'all!
Elder K. Olsen
Monday, November 14, 2011
Remember that one time we had the Cops called on us?
Hello everyone!
First off i am not district leader! I've got to say that was a huge relief, i'm just not quite ready for that yet. But anyways my new companion is Elder Friel. He's from Hawaii, he's taller than me and he plays football. He was actually called as a Georgia missionary and then the two missions combined and he became a South Carolina missionary. This is his very last transfer and it's actually his first time serving in SC. I'm learning a lot about contacting people, Elder Friel knows how to knock doors. Plus we invite about 10+ to be baptized every day. Him and I get along perfectly, we can work hard and can have fun doing it. I hear all these stories about how every missionary gets a companion that they don't like very much. But Elder Friel isn't the one, and hopefully i won't have one down the road either. But since this is his last transfer it most likely means that i will have at least one more transfer in Conway after this, possibly two. Because after he leaves I'll have to show someone else how to work the area, and if i get to train then I'll do that for 12 weeks. So my first area I'm going to spend either 6 or 7 1/2 months, which isn't bad because Conway is awesome!
Great news! Guess who's getting baptized on Saturday! Jane is! I'm so excited for her, she told us that she had told her daughter she was getting baptized on the 19 and then her daughter told everyone she knew on facebook. Well unfortunately Jane hadn't been to church yet so after she came to church yesterday we got special permission from President Holm. So pray that everything goes according to plan there. It was funny though, she was so scared at church yesterday. She's had a pretty rough life, and she hasn't come by very many nice people. So she was a little overwhelmed by all the nice people and didn't want to mess anything up. But she had a wonderful time and everyone was so nice to her. I'm so relieved that it went well. Something else that happened yesterday is i found out that i get to speak in sacrament next Sunday. So this next weekend is going to be crazy busy. But of course i'm going to speak on missionary work, i doubt that missionaries give talks on anything else. So that should be fun.
I was so excited to hear about Mikayla's picture winning! I really wish i could be there for these things, but definitely send me some pictures and keep me updated how the event goes. I actually remember that picture when you told me about it, i really like that one. By the way whats happened with my camera since i left. Has anyone been able to use it?It makes me really happy to hear that y'all are doing family scripture study and prayer, i know it will help bring us closer together. Down here i've seen too many family situations that are in a really bad place. I'm very thankful for the way i was raised, and there's a very popular billboard down here in the south. It says "the family that prays together stays together". I testify to that for sure.
So we have a couple bedrooms at the house and one room has queen size beds and the other has twins. Well when i got here with Elder Cramer we used the twins because that just what he had been doing since he got here. But Elder Friel and i agreed that we would upgrade to some beds that we can actually fit on. I've been sleeping so much better, but i have to admit it has made it harder to get up in the morning.
Different thoughts just keep popping into my head. But have i told y'all about mormon.org? Because it's amazing and you should check it out. Actually i even made a profile on there if you can find me. But if you have time watch the "I'm a Mormon" videos. That's all the entertainment that we really get but it's still awesome.About Elder Cramer you can just write 'Elder Cramer' a letter. His name isn't quite as common as Olsen. There's three Olsens in the mission, because we're awesome like that.
So It's been a little rough with this day light savings thing. It gets dark at about 6 which is way too early. People really aren't too happy about people knocking on there door when it's dark either, everyone gives us the excuse that it's too late and they're getting ready for bed or something. Even though it's 6: 30. We're definitely not gonna knock rich neighborhoods at night anymore. The other night we knocked this rich street and when we had finished we were walking back to the car and a policeman drove up and had to get our information because some door we had knocked on was annoyed. It was pretty funny to see the policeman's expression when he found out we were from Utah and Hawaii for some church. Now Elder Friel and I like to say "remember that one time we had the cops called on us?" I love being a missionary.
But anyway I love y'all and i know y'all already know but i just gotta keep tellin ya!
Elder K. Olsen
First off i am not district leader! I've got to say that was a huge relief, i'm just not quite ready for that yet. But anyways my new companion is Elder Friel. He's from Hawaii, he's taller than me and he plays football. He was actually called as a Georgia missionary and then the two missions combined and he became a South Carolina missionary. This is his very last transfer and it's actually his first time serving in SC. I'm learning a lot about contacting people, Elder Friel knows how to knock doors. Plus we invite about 10+ to be baptized every day. Him and I get along perfectly, we can work hard and can have fun doing it. I hear all these stories about how every missionary gets a companion that they don't like very much. But Elder Friel isn't the one, and hopefully i won't have one down the road either. But since this is his last transfer it most likely means that i will have at least one more transfer in Conway after this, possibly two. Because after he leaves I'll have to show someone else how to work the area, and if i get to train then I'll do that for 12 weeks. So my first area I'm going to spend either 6 or 7 1/2 months, which isn't bad because Conway is awesome!
Great news! Guess who's getting baptized on Saturday! Jane is! I'm so excited for her, she told us that she had told her daughter she was getting baptized on the 19 and then her daughter told everyone she knew on facebook. Well unfortunately Jane hadn't been to church yet so after she came to church yesterday we got special permission from President Holm. So pray that everything goes according to plan there. It was funny though, she was so scared at church yesterday. She's had a pretty rough life, and she hasn't come by very many nice people. So she was a little overwhelmed by all the nice people and didn't want to mess anything up. But she had a wonderful time and everyone was so nice to her. I'm so relieved that it went well. Something else that happened yesterday is i found out that i get to speak in sacrament next Sunday. So this next weekend is going to be crazy busy. But of course i'm going to speak on missionary work, i doubt that missionaries give talks on anything else. So that should be fun.
I was so excited to hear about Mikayla's picture winning! I really wish i could be there for these things, but definitely send me some pictures and keep me updated how the event goes. I actually remember that picture when you told me about it, i really like that one. By the way whats happened with my camera since i left. Has anyone been able to use it?It makes me really happy to hear that y'all are doing family scripture study and prayer, i know it will help bring us closer together. Down here i've seen too many family situations that are in a really bad place. I'm very thankful for the way i was raised, and there's a very popular billboard down here in the south. It says "the family that prays together stays together". I testify to that for sure.
So we have a couple bedrooms at the house and one room has queen size beds and the other has twins. Well when i got here with Elder Cramer we used the twins because that just what he had been doing since he got here. But Elder Friel and i agreed that we would upgrade to some beds that we can actually fit on. I've been sleeping so much better, but i have to admit it has made it harder to get up in the morning.
Different thoughts just keep popping into my head. But have i told y'all about mormon.org? Because it's amazing and you should check it out. Actually i even made a profile on there if you can find me. But if you have time watch the "I'm a Mormon" videos. That's all the entertainment that we really get but it's still awesome.About Elder Cramer you can just write 'Elder Cramer' a letter. His name isn't quite as common as Olsen. There's three Olsens in the mission, because we're awesome like that.
So It's been a little rough with this day light savings thing. It gets dark at about 6 which is way too early. People really aren't too happy about people knocking on there door when it's dark either, everyone gives us the excuse that it's too late and they're getting ready for bed or something. Even though it's 6: 30. We're definitely not gonna knock rich neighborhoods at night anymore. The other night we knocked this rich street and when we had finished we were walking back to the car and a policeman drove up and had to get our information because some door we had knocked on was annoyed. It was pretty funny to see the policeman's expression when he found out we were from Utah and Hawaii for some church. Now Elder Friel and I like to say "remember that one time we had the cops called on us?" I love being a missionary.
But anyway I love y'all and i know y'all already know but i just gotta keep tellin ya!
Elder K. Olsen
Monday, November 7, 2011
Two Transfers Down!
Two transfers down!
So we definitely enjoyed our extra hour of sleep on Saturday night. It's especially nice to wake up when it's actually light in the morning. It's really hard to convince yourself to get out of bed when it's just as dark as it was when you fell asleep.
But yes we got the candy and have really enjoyed it so far! I'm not quite sure when we got it, and honestly I'm still not quite sure how this whole mailing system works. But i know that i get everything!
This past week has been really productive. But first of all i have to tell you that Elder Cramer is getting transferred on Wednesday! Which is disappointing because we never got to baptize together. But he has been her for 4 1/2 months which is a long time, plus we just got done training, so we were kind of expecting it to happen. Now unfortunately something else we are expecting to happen is that i will become a district leader. Because in this district Conway is in the middle, which makes it the district leaders area, and since i've been here for 3 months that will most likely make me the District Leader. Which is scary because that means i will have to do a baptismal interview on Saturday. So i guess we'll see what happens there!
The baptisms that we had set for the 19 have been postponed. But thats okay, Jane had a good excuse on Sunday and she's okay if we move it back to the 26. So cross your fingers for that!
Sunday was great though. Jesse and Holly came and we had our second dinner yesterday with them. They really enjoy church and said that it's like the lessons are directed straight at them every time. Church was extremely special this week because i have been studying the sacrament a lot lately, and sacrament just meant more to me. Which set the mood for the rest of Church. I advise that if anyone wants to get a lot out of church. They should thoroughly study the sacrament.
Haha i have to be honest i am very tired right now. I can't quite type as quickly as i would like, i definitely can't remember everything that i would like. Plus i keep spelling things wrong. But i'm glad that i'm tired, it must mean that i'm doing something right. Or at least i hope thats what it means.
I'm trying to remember what y'all want me to talk about. I can say that i'm doing great, and actually something cool that i've been doing. I took a Book of Mormon and i'm going through it highlighting all of the Christlike attributes. (Faith, Hope, Charity, Love, Obedience, Patience, Humility, Virtue, Diligence, and Hope). That's also something i advise everyone to do. Buy a cheap Book of Mormon and study it with something in mind. It opens your mind to the spirit and you learn things that you didn't know you could.
Sorry that this isn't a long letter. I can't quite get my mind to work correctly at the moment. But know that i love y'all and that i'm doing great!
Love Elder K. Olsen
So we definitely enjoyed our extra hour of sleep on Saturday night. It's especially nice to wake up when it's actually light in the morning. It's really hard to convince yourself to get out of bed when it's just as dark as it was when you fell asleep.
But yes we got the candy and have really enjoyed it so far! I'm not quite sure when we got it, and honestly I'm still not quite sure how this whole mailing system works. But i know that i get everything!
This past week has been really productive. But first of all i have to tell you that Elder Cramer is getting transferred on Wednesday! Which is disappointing because we never got to baptize together. But he has been her for 4 1/2 months which is a long time, plus we just got done training, so we were kind of expecting it to happen. Now unfortunately something else we are expecting to happen is that i will become a district leader. Because in this district Conway is in the middle, which makes it the district leaders area, and since i've been here for 3 months that will most likely make me the District Leader. Which is scary because that means i will have to do a baptismal interview on Saturday. So i guess we'll see what happens there!
The baptisms that we had set for the 19 have been postponed. But thats okay, Jane had a good excuse on Sunday and she's okay if we move it back to the 26. So cross your fingers for that!
Sunday was great though. Jesse and Holly came and we had our second dinner yesterday with them. They really enjoy church and said that it's like the lessons are directed straight at them every time. Church was extremely special this week because i have been studying the sacrament a lot lately, and sacrament just meant more to me. Which set the mood for the rest of Church. I advise that if anyone wants to get a lot out of church. They should thoroughly study the sacrament.
Haha i have to be honest i am very tired right now. I can't quite type as quickly as i would like, i definitely can't remember everything that i would like. Plus i keep spelling things wrong. But i'm glad that i'm tired, it must mean that i'm doing something right. Or at least i hope thats what it means.
I'm trying to remember what y'all want me to talk about. I can say that i'm doing great, and actually something cool that i've been doing. I took a Book of Mormon and i'm going through it highlighting all of the Christlike attributes. (Faith, Hope, Charity, Love, Obedience, Patience, Humility, Virtue, Diligence, and Hope). That's also something i advise everyone to do. Buy a cheap Book of Mormon and study it with something in mind. It opens your mind to the spirit and you learn things that you didn't know you could.
Sorry that this isn't a long letter. I can't quite get my mind to work correctly at the moment. But know that i love y'all and that i'm doing great!
Love Elder K. Olsen
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Well i have to say that it's been quite the week. We got a new car on monday (toyota corolla 2011), but we got a call on Monday saying that we had to clean it by 9:00, and it was 3:00. We already had some appointments and a dinner with some members. So we got back home at 6:00 and we cleaned like crazy. We completely vaccumed the car (every little spot of it), washed it of course and then had to wax it. Which isn't the easiest thing to do when neither one of us had done it and we had to do it in the dark. But we managed to finish the second they came to pick up the car. So that was a crazy day!
The LTM was great! But i can't say that driving there was. We had to make a detour to Cheraw to pick up another missionary. So we reached Cheraw at 11:30pm and then slept (on the very comfortable floor) then woke up at 5:00am and left at 5:45am. Then it was back to driving. We got to Columbia at 11:30am.
But it was amazing! There were two men their that were recently mission presidents and we learned so much. I was able to see all of my friends in the mtc. We also got a picture taken, which when i get it i will send it to you. In missionary terms it was a picture of my dad, grandpa, and great-grandpa. Which means, me, my trainer, and his trainer, and then his trainer. That doesn't happen very often, but i'm just lucky. Well the meeting lasted until 5:00pm. Then we drove back home, stopping at Cheraw, then going to Conway. Reaching home at 9:30pm. I'm so done with driving.
We had our Halloween Party on saturday. That was crazy. i couldn't believe how many people came. On average there are about 130 people at church every sunday. The party had about 250! We were shaking hands like crazy just trying to meet everyone. There were tons of less actives and plenty of non-members. Even Dede and her daughters came! We didn't get the chance to do our game. Which is okay, we were going to do ninja warrior and it we thought of it that morning. Not the best planning we've ever done but in the end it turned out okay. There was a chili cook off and this italian couple won the spiciest chili, we are going to have dinner with them on Sunday. and they aren't even members. The great thing about being missionaries is that after these occasions we get the priveledge of getting all of the leftovers. So lots of cake, cupcakes, candy, soda, and chili. Which was ironic because we took it all home and then started our fast. But fasting brings blessings!
To answer Morgans question of what missionaries get to do. Well today is our P-day. So we will go shopping, clean the house and car, write letters, proselyte for three hours. Then we are in lockdown for the night. So we will have our own personal party! We've got all the candy and food already.
We have a couple new investigators this week:
Jane: she's and older lady and her daughter is a member. She's going through lots of trial and for a while we just listened to her. Then we were going to read her a scripture about baptism. When we said the word baptism she said, "oh i want to get baptized! i want my whole family to be there too!" I was stunned and almost forgot to put her on date for the 19. Now she didn't come to church, so please pray that we can fix that.
Byron, Kattie, and Byron jr.: This family is golden, we taught them alot about the book of mormon and the importance of baptism. We invited him to be baptized and he said he wanted to make sure he new what he was getting himself into. But he really enjoys the Book of Mormon so i believe that this family is great. Afterward when we stood up to leave Byron was holding his 5 month old baby who looked at me and couldn't stop laughing. Then he would look away and look back and start laughing again. It was so funny, his dad said that he never laughed, he smiled a lot but very rarily does he laugh. So that baby scored me some points.
Faye: She's a very humble grandma. She was a referral from the ward and turns out she's really good friends with Jude Starr! It was cool, she has half a brain (literally), a steel spine (literally), and blind in one eye. Medically speaking she was diagnosed to stop walking back in the 70's. But she was walking around fine! She's also had her car stolen by her friend and her family has been going through a lot. But then she said something that almost made me cry. She said, "Boys, i'll tell you this. You'll will never find a more blessed woman than me." So we'll hopefully see her again soon.
Love y'all
Elder Olsen
Well i have to say that it's been quite the week. We got a new car on monday (toyota corolla 2011), but we got a call on Monday saying that we had to clean it by 9:00, and it was 3:00. We already had some appointments and a dinner with some members. So we got back home at 6:00 and we cleaned like crazy. We completely vaccumed the car (every little spot of it), washed it of course and then had to wax it. Which isn't the easiest thing to do when neither one of us had done it and we had to do it in the dark. But we managed to finish the second they came to pick up the car. So that was a crazy day!
The LTM was great! But i can't say that driving there was. We had to make a detour to Cheraw to pick up another missionary. So we reached Cheraw at 11:30pm and then slept (on the very comfortable floor) then woke up at 5:00am and left at 5:45am. Then it was back to driving. We got to Columbia at 11:30am.
But it was amazing! There were two men their that were recently mission presidents and we learned so much. I was able to see all of my friends in the mtc. We also got a picture taken, which when i get it i will send it to you. In missionary terms it was a picture of my dad, grandpa, and great-grandpa. Which means, me, my trainer, and his trainer, and then his trainer. That doesn't happen very often, but i'm just lucky. Well the meeting lasted until 5:00pm. Then we drove back home, stopping at Cheraw, then going to Conway. Reaching home at 9:30pm. I'm so done with driving.
We had our Halloween Party on saturday. That was crazy. i couldn't believe how many people came. On average there are about 130 people at church every sunday. The party had about 250! We were shaking hands like crazy just trying to meet everyone. There were tons of less actives and plenty of non-members. Even Dede and her daughters came! We didn't get the chance to do our game. Which is okay, we were going to do ninja warrior and it we thought of it that morning. Not the best planning we've ever done but in the end it turned out okay. There was a chili cook off and this italian couple won the spiciest chili, we are going to have dinner with them on Sunday. and they aren't even members. The great thing about being missionaries is that after these occasions we get the priveledge of getting all of the leftovers. So lots of cake, cupcakes, candy, soda, and chili. Which was ironic because we took it all home and then started our fast. But fasting brings blessings!
To answer Morgans question of what missionaries get to do. Well today is our P-day. So we will go shopping, clean the house and car, write letters, proselyte for three hours. Then we are in lockdown for the night. So we will have our own personal party! We've got all the candy and food already.
We have a couple new investigators this week:
Jane: she's and older lady and her daughter is a member. She's going through lots of trial and for a while we just listened to her. Then we were going to read her a scripture about baptism. When we said the word baptism she said, "oh i want to get baptized! i want my whole family to be there too!" I was stunned and almost forgot to put her on date for the 19. Now she didn't come to church, so please pray that we can fix that.
Byron, Kattie, and Byron jr.: This family is golden, we taught them alot about the book of mormon and the importance of baptism. We invited him to be baptized and he said he wanted to make sure he new what he was getting himself into. But he really enjoys the Book of Mormon so i believe that this family is great. Afterward when we stood up to leave Byron was holding his 5 month old baby who looked at me and couldn't stop laughing. Then he would look away and look back and start laughing again. It was so funny, his dad said that he never laughed, he smiled a lot but very rarily does he laugh. So that baby scored me some points.
Faye: She's a very humble grandma. She was a referral from the ward and turns out she's really good friends with Jude Starr! It was cool, she has half a brain (literally), a steel spine (literally), and blind in one eye. Medically speaking she was diagnosed to stop walking back in the 70's. But she was walking around fine! She's also had her car stolen by her friend and her family has been going through a lot. But then she said something that almost made me cry. She said, "Boys, i'll tell you this. You'll will never find a more blessed woman than me." So we'll hopefully see her again soon.
Love y'all
Elder Olsen
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