Zip-i-dee-doo-dah!

 

So yesterday was Martin Luther King day as i'm sure you already know. But because of that holliday there weren't any computers available to us. But here's that fancy letter y'all have been waitin for!

First off:

 

Sunday was awesome!!! We had BEll and Trina and Randy come to church and they all had a great time! Then after church the Bishops daughter was baptized, so all our investigators were able to stay for that and it was awesome even though church was five hours long. For me it was seven hours long because i had some meetings in the morning. I do need to work on not stressing out when we have investigators at church though. I'm just constantly wondering, are they having a good time, how are they with the ward members, are they understanding everything? So as you can imagine i was really out of energy when it was all done.

I feel bad for the sunday school teacher though. Because he was teaching and at some point he mentioned that God wasn't a spirit but had a body of flesh and bones. Well Bell cut him off and said "wait, God isn't a spirit?" He kind of froze and then looked at us and said "your investigator has some questions" It was pretty funny, and obviously i need to explain that a little better.

 

Anyway Sunday was great and now thats all that i can really think about. The rest of my week doesn't really matter because i actually had some investigators at church. The ward loved it too, because they were all talking to us, and complimenting us on the good work, and they were getting all excited. Oh and the dinner calendar for this month is completely full. We're gettin fed good! I'm so glad that the holidays are over and everything is back to normal again. Dont get me wrong holidays on missions are great. But i could do without them.

 

The rest of this month we're going to have to bike ALOT. Because we only get 1050 miles in the car every month. We're at about 850. So i'm not to excited about that. But on the positive side it will force us to get rides from members so that we can use them in our missionary work.

 

It's still pretty warm down here in SC. It's probably in the low 70s right now. But people are saying that it will get cold here soon....

 

I haven't broken his ukelele yet. I got pretty close this morning though. I ended up going in the back room shutting the door and turning the fan on high while i read my scriptures. But usually i'm okay with the ukelele. This morning i was just thinking about a million things at once and it was starting to get to me, the ukelele wasn't helping. But i read my scriptures and prayed and everything is better now. It's so relieving that i'm able to take all of my problems to Heavenly Father and just be like "here ya go, take control." That doesn't mean i just sit back in my chair and relax, but i at least know that everything is going to be okay.

 

This last week was my best week "number wise" in my entire mission. We taught 19 lessons, and talked to near 100 people, plus we got 4 investigators at church. So we can still improve, and the goal of our district is to scare other missionaries so they don't want to be transferred here because we are going to set the bar so high. We're not competing against any other missionaries... but we're still gonna work for being the best.

 

I got the pictures and the camera card which i'm really excited to have more memory now. Unfortunately i wasn't able to see the videos on my camera. But i looked at all the pictures and i was really impressed that you wrote on the back of every single one. That one of the gingerbread guy made me laugh.

 

But guess what?

I love y'all!

 

Elder K. Olsen

 

ps. picture 1 below is (from left to right) Elder Nelson, Elder Law, Elder Cramer, Me, Elder Olsen

picture 2 is my awesome new beanie that was made for me (snowbird colors)

 

Hey Howdy Hey!

Hey howdy hey!

It's been great the past few days... ridiculously hot, but great. We hit 75 degrees yesterday so we didn't have to wear our suit jackets! Hallelujah!

But i think i wrote y'all last tuesday so i'm trying to remember everything thats been done since then. On thursday night we got picked up by the myrtle beach elders so that we could drive to sumter, because on friday we had a leadership training meeting in columbia. So we stayed the night in sumter. I wish i had taken a picture but i slept in a tempermental recliner that just didn't want to stay reclined. Then i took a dinner chair and put a pillow on it because i was to long for the recliner. I can't say it was my best night of sleep ever, but it definitely wasn't my worst. The really funny part though is that everyone got mad at me because of my snoring. So far something i've been able to accomplish with every companion :).

But the leadership meeting was awesome! It got Elder Brimhall and i super pumped to get to work, the meeting was perfect for us because it showed us exactly what we needed to fix so that we could be more effective. The only downfall to the meeting was that it lasted from 7:45-6:30. So with the drive home and stopping by for dinner we got back home at 9:00. So that ate our entire day up. Something really cool though! So in missionary lingo Elder Brimhall is my son, and elder cramer is my dad, and so on and so forth. Well at the meeting we had five generations there! I took a picture which i meant to send today but i forgot my camera. But five generations still living in a mission is almost unheard of, and the chances of us being in the same meeting is even slimmer. Because only district leaders, zone leaders, trainers, and trainees went to it. So that was extremely exciting.

Church was alright yesterday. Although we got kind of stiff armed by all of our investigators. We had 4 planning to come to church and none of them actually came. But on the bright side there are these two less active members who haven't been to church in 28 years who came! Last week we got a text asking if we would come over, so of course we did. So it's a grandma, her daughter, and then her two grandkids. Well her grandkids havent been baptized and Sis. Newman (grandma) decided it was time to come back to church. So basically we have two guaranteed baptisms! Actually i just realized we could baptize them this month! The older grandkid is 12 so he would actually be a deacon as well.

I want to ask if everyone would pray for Jane. She's been going through a lot of job issues, health issues, family issues, financial issues, pretty much everything at the moment. Well i promised her that if she continued to pray, read the scriptures, and come back to church (she hasn't been for weeks now) that everything would get better. We blessed her home and her this morning, and now i just need many prayers that nothing will get in her way getting to church. I know that if she comes to church that everything else will be taken care of.

So that is a great scripture to go by mom. Actually the entire book of timothy is probably good to go by. Elder Brimhall absolutely love the book of Timothy. He quotes 2 Timothy 4:7 a lot, it's his favorite.

Funny story, so we had exchanges with the Tabor City elders. Well one elder up there has a ukelele and elder brimhall fell in love with it. So on the way home from tabor city we stopped at a pawn shop and he got one.... well i can't get him to stop playing it now. He's actually really good for never playing before, but i still might throw it out the window on the highway. But he's also been memorizing a scripture mastery every day which is really cool. Me on the other hand have had some amazing studies.

That reminds me! Well dad you may have already given your talk but i've been meaning to send you my notes for a bit now. I don't have my notes with me so i'm just going to go off the top of my head here.It's amazing that you were assigned that topic because actually Elder Pieper way back when he was here actually talked about that exact concept. Except he talked about doctrine, principle, and application. Because when you think about it doctrines and principles never change. But the application does, and thats what can confuse people. For example the word of wisdom is and has always has been an eternal principle. The doctrine is obedience (at least in my perspective). But now look at the different applications over time. Adam and Eve couldn't partake of the fruit or they would surely die, when you think about it that's the word of wisdom. The word of wisdom entails what to eat and what not to eat. Tobacco and illegal drugs weren't a problem in the garden of eden so of course heavenly father wouldn't have told them not to eat it. But now that those things are available the application of the word of wisdom or the policy of the word of wisdom has changed. I'm sure that you could find that with any doctrine or principle that we have.

Something else about doctrine, principle, and policy is that they do have differences of course. But they are much more effective when you put them together. I have found that i can find any answer i need if i ask three questions. How? (which will explain the policy) What? (which will explain the principle) and Why? (which explains the doctrine).

EX. HOW is the sacrament performed? By blessing the bread and water then having deacons pass to the congregation. Today we bless water, in the new testament wine was used. The policy has changed.
What is the sacrament? It's the ordinance saying that we will renew our covenants and take upon His name upon us and keep all of His commandments, and in return we will have His spirit to be with us.
Why do we perform the sacrament? So that we can have His spirit to be with us. So that we can repent.

Now these are just some of my thoughts on the subject and you can use them as you wish. Also i had a question, that book that you have dad, about Joseph Smith. It's blue and called "Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith" I have permission to read that book as long as i only read it on p-days. Would it be possible to get a copy of that?

I love y'all!

Elder K. Olsen

I'm Back.

So it's tuesday and not monday if you haven't noticed yet... and this keyboard is really weird so i'm having some difficulties.

Anyway the library was closed yesterday so we werent able to actually e-mail, but here i am!

It's been pretty good since last week, i can't complain.

Except church was rather rough. Our average is about 150 people at church every week. On christmas we hit 175 and this last sunday we had maybe 70. None of which were investigators. But i feel that everything will start working again now that the holidays are over.

We haven't been able to see daryl since last i talked about him which is kind of concerning me because we got to get that kid baptized. So i'm pretty sure we are going to go and see him today. Bell and trina are doing great, but unfortunately Bell has some sort of deadly virus that may keep her from church this sunday, and more down the road. So pray that she can get better and that she can still get baptized this month.

We have a few new people Dale and his son cody and his daughter hannah. They are all on date for baptism for the 28! It was great because we just taught them on there doorstep and then put them on date. We'll have to go see them very soon.

Then there is Sydney and her son who just moved from virginia and had all the lessons taught to them and want to be baptized. We are going to have dinner with them on saturday. So there's a couple more baptisms that should happen.

Byron is still great and understands everything we're teaching but unfortunately we are having trouble getting him to church. I'm concerned that that may hold him back.

So there's many people that we are working with right now and over the next few weeks we'll see what happens. But we are going to work as hard as we possibly can.

So i'm excited to hear that i have more than one memory card on the way. I have the new camera now and i went kind of crazy for a bit, i'm cooling down now. But i still probably already have about 4-5 gigs full of stuff. It goes by pretty quick.

The picture of madison you sent me was really stretched out but i still think that it's the coolest picture ever! I'm so proud, (sniff) give me a second i'm starting to tear up. But seriously that is really awesome. (I had included a picture of Madison in my email to Kyle  -- it was her birthday and she got an Xbox 360. The picture was Madison with her Xbox, drinking a can of Pepsi. I think she wants to be just like her big bro!)

Don't worry about my sarcastic wit mom. For better or worse i'll probably have that trait for most of my life!

But yeah, that's me, that's my life.

Oh and it's rather cold right now, two days ago it was in the 70's now it's in the 50's brrrr! Remember i got the humidity factor.

I'm right with you mom, i'll try to write more hand written letters!

Elder K. Olsen

John 14:15 (my favorite)

P.S.

No frog giggin yet. (When we talked to Kyle on Christmas we asked him what there was to do around there. Someone at the house he was out suggested they go 'frog giggin')  I don't think we'll be able to unfortunately, it's where you go to the swamp at midnight with a shotgun when all of the frogs are out and about.... I guess i'll just have to do that when i visit in the future.

This picture is just cool...

Surprise letter with Pictures!!

Surprise!

You probably didn't expect to get a letter from me this week did you? Well today is the first day that the library was open so sorry for the delay. But anyway it was great talking to y'all on Christmas! I gotta say i understand why we don't talk more often though. I was sort of trunky for a couple hours. But i'm focused again and we are getting some great work done!

So our two new investigators who are on date are fantastic! The first one is Bell, we actually taught her and her friend Trina on friday. We put Bell on date for Jan. 21 and i thought it was kind of sketchy and would fall through. But we taught them and Bells husband Bernard yesterday and it was one of the most spiritual of my mission. All we did was read 1 Nephi 1 with them and seriously explained every verse. We had already taught them the Restoration but i felt they needed a better understanding of the Book of Mormon. On friday we gave Bell a Book of Mormon. Well at that lesson we gave Bernard a copy with the testimony of Waverly Barnard in the front (I'll tell you that miracle story in a second). (Just so others reading will understand, the Barnards are a family in Kyle's ward back home, and Waverly is one of their daughters). I told him that that was a very special copy because of that testimony and i would only give it to him if he actually read it. Well they both promised to read and were telling us that we were an inspiration to them and they were both crying when we were done because the spirit was so strong. Which made me tear up (Elder Brimhall didn't though, he's a marine). But i have a great feeling about those two.

Then we have an 18 year old kid named Daryl on date for Jan 21. We taught him on Friday as well and he asked us when we were done teaching, "Do you know how to get baptized, because my mom and grandpa have been baptized but i havent?" Well i was speechless and Elder Brimhall said, "We can definitely help you with that." Then he started asking us a ton of Plan of Salvation questions to which we told him we would teach him all of that at a later date. So we taught him on Saturday. This kid is solid and i am so excited that Elder Brimhall will see so much success at the beginning of his mission.

Speaking of which, I'm training! My family knows that but i guess other people read this as well so this is for you. He landed in SC two mondays ago and i picked him up last wednsday. He is an awesome missionary and is completely fearless about teaching the gospel. For this 12 week program every week he gets more responsibilities in teaching. Such as week 1, he invites everyone to be baptized (not me). This week he takes the lead in teaching the Restoration. So that's what he does, sometimes we sit there in silence because he doesn't realize i'm waiting for him to invite people. But he figures it out pretty quick.

On the other hand he is a fantastic cook! I spent a lot more than i usually do for groceries last monday. But it was totally worth it. Bacon and pancakes and grits and eggs for breakfast. And french dip subs and lasagna for lunch and dinner. This is going to be a good couple of transfers. Oh, and mom, don't worry he wasn't insulted. It was really funny. But his family was nice to me and asked me questions. I quickly excused myself because it was awkward to take his time away.

Thankfully i am not the district leader, Phew! I'm thankful that i can now just focus on training and missionary work.

As for my miracle from the Barnard family. We had a grand total of two copies of the Book of Mormon and we aren't going to get any more until Jan 5. Well obviously that's not acceptable and i was getting really concerned. Well in walk the APs with a package for me on Saturday during our companion study. They stayed for a minute then left. Well when i opened my package i found five copies of the Book of Mormon with wonderful testimonies in them from the Barnard family. I started to cry because of how great of a miracle it was (Elder Brimhall didn't, he's a marine). So Barnard family, thank you thank you thank you so much! You saved our Christmas and made it possible so far to give someone the Book of Mormon who really needed it (Berndard).

I also got a package from the Eagle Mountain 1st Ward! And i will tell you whats in it when i get it on Jan 5 haha. But i just wanted to say a pre-thank you for whatever it is. I'm very grateful for everything that i get.

Well since i won't be able to on that day i want to wish everyone a happy new year! Our plans for that are... we have to be in the apartment by six o clock and are free to do whatever (as long as it's obedient of course).

But i love y'all! (Actually i do type y'all without meaning too, it's natural, yes!)

Elder K. Olsen

Elder Olsen and Elder Brimhall with the Bishop and his daughters

Elder Olsen and Elder Brimhall

Elder Olsen holding a pet snake. Kyle hates snakes, so this is amazing. I guess you'll go to extreme measures as a missionary to help re-activate a family :)

Kyle's a Trainer :)

Hey! Sorry i'm late!

So obviously it's been an eventful Pday and we just have barely enough time to use the computer. But anyway those hours with the skype won't work for me because I have church from 10-11. So how about I call at 9 and then 10? I'm gonna get on the computer again on either Thursday or Friday so I'll be able to see if that work for y'all.

So I'm training! I got the call on Saturday and I'm so excited. Actually my entire district got affected by this one. They're taking both sisters out of tabor city and probably putting in elders. Then Elder Friel left, and we're losing one in Marion. So out of the 6 we're losing 4. That's pretty crazy. I'm not to sure if I'll be district leader. But either way is fine with me because I'm going to pick up my "son" on Wednesday. Which will mean that there will be 5 generations of trainers and trainees in the mission. That's right, my great grandpa is still alive here.

But the Christmas party was really fun. We dressed up like Roman soldiers and went around taxing people. There weren't a lot of investigators but if anything i had a lot of fun with the members and now I'm really close to them. It's gonna be really hard when i have to leave. But i don't have to worry about that for 3 months! Then we had a Christmas party in Marion. It was funny because Santa came and he had a very strong southern accent (i knew it!). But needless to say i have had a lot of junk food the past couple of days. And earlier that day there was a wedding in Marion that i was able to attend. It was a very quick wedding and the non-members out numbered the members (awesome!). Unfortunately the next day the newly weds were supposed to get baptized, but the brides grandpa died so they left to Augusta. Which is sad because elder Brown has been in Marion for 6 months and 0 baptisms, and he's leaving on Wednesday. But today was really fun because we got together as a district and celebrated elder browns birthday (yesterday) and sister graves (today). Again, way too much junk food.

Like i said before elder friel is gone which is really sad. I really liked that guy. He left me a whole bunch of ties which is fantastic, i don't have to wear the same tie twice a week now. Especially because i spilled red sparkling cider on the tie i am currently wearing (amazingly none got on my shirt). You can't see the cider on my tie, but it smells really good now. So with all the presents that have been sent to me, I got the letter which told me to not open the presents until Christmas a couple days after i got them. So I've opened them all. Actually the one i got from the erdmann clan had the hair clippers in it, which i really need to use but cant cause they're in Conway so my trainee is gonna see me with long hair... not the best first impression but he'll get over it. and who knows with the other packages i may wait till Christmas to open them. doubtful. But thank you for everything! I use that blanket every night Sadie, it's super comfortable and i can almost fold it up right! The only problem is that this suit attracts every tiny piece of hair and lint in a five mile radius and that blanket REALLY likes my suit. Haha I'll be sending my memory card home on Monday so that y'all can see. I don't have any updates for investigators because I've been in the lovely town of Marion. I got to admit i miss Conway. and my queen size bed that my feet don't hang off of. I'm definitely excited to tell you about my trainee next Sunday and I'll talk to y'all soon!

Love y'all!

Elder K. Olsen

Hello Again back!

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

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