Hey Momma.

Hey momma!

So I'm sorry that you had to hear my voice the other day but couldn't talk to me. (Just so you know what he's talking about -- I got a call from SC this week because Kyle was at the dentist and they needed his insurance information. When I called back to give it to them, they went to hand him the phone so he could write it down, and being the obedient missionary that he his, he wouldn't take the phone and told the lady he wasn't allowed to talk on the phone.  So I heard his voice, but didn't get to talk to him.  I'm proud of him -- but kind of wanted to strangle him at the same time!) But to let you know i was able to see the dentist and he just cleaned my teeth this time. Hopefully it will be cheaper because i'm a missionary and he's a member! But he's got that metal hook thing that scratches your gums... except this ones electric and it sounds like a drill! So they told me my gums were bleeding a lot, and in my head i said "because you just ran an electric hook among them!" Y'all know how much i love the dentist. But anyway there are three teeth that i got to get fixed (yay) and i will be going back their on Thursday to finish that all up and then hopefully i can be done with it for the rest of the mission.

I'll be sending you those memory cards today. So in the next bit or so you will be receiving 14 gigs of my amazing life! Isn't that exciting!

Unfortunately i found out that Peggy has moved to North Carolina. Or she's going to. But anyway she should be getting baptized soon.

Elder Brimhall isn't a district leader yet. But we'll find out at the end of this transfer. And this is the last week of the transfer! That went by way to quick, i can't believe i've almost been in Hartsville for 6 weeks!

Well this has probably been our best week in Hartsvegas! It's great because the Cheraw elders (other ones in the district) put two people on baptismal date this week! So now they have two baptisms set up for the month of May. I'm going to talk to them to see if one of them can be baptized the last week of April. Because they made a goal for baptizing one this month and i want to help them do it. I guess this lady has been going to church for a while so it's very possible.

Mean while in Hartsville a lot has been happening as well. Unfortunately we don't have anyone set on date to be baptized. But we're getting close. See if you ever ask Pres. Holm if you can do anything for him he will tell you, "As a matter of a fact you can, Plan, Find, Teach, Baptize." That's kind of one of the themes right now in the mission and it's amazing how this month looks like it's been set up that way. Because when we first got here things were kind of a mess. Our map wasn't very great, our records weren't up to date, neither of us new anyone or anything about Hartsville. But now we are on our feet! Because the first week of this month felt like a planning week, this past week was definitely a finding week. We were able to meet with a lot of members to get referrals, we knocked like crazy, we're setting up seminars for members to invite their friends, we're learning how we can find in the young mens program as well as cub scouts. We practically have the entire ward council behind us now and ready to go.

On Sunday we were able to set up so many things with the members. We were actually able to set up with three members to go out teaching with them............and we set up an a few appointments to meet with members to help them do missionary work as well. Plus we are also blessed that we have a dinner appointment every day this week plus a couple lunch appointments. Oh and did i mention that the members here buy our groceries? So we definitely aren't hungry in the slightest.

Speaking of food! A couple days ago there was a cake auction for the youth so that they can go camping. Well it was funny because there was a member who wanted to buy us a cake. So we picked one and when it came up he started the bidding. Well there was another member who really wanted that cake and he was a professional auctioneer. So it just keeps going back and forth and then the member sitting next to us who was buying the cake stood up and yelled to the other bidder "I hope you know that you're bidding against the lords anointed!" Well everyone laughed really hard and needless to say we got the brownie chocolate cream cheese cake thing which is amazing! Then some other members got us some home made craisin bread and we got tons of spaghetti and salad and bread and salad dressings. I <3 Hartsville.

So we are keeping very busy here and i'm learning and growing more and more every day.

I don't think i've born my testimony for a while and i think since I'm alive that this would be a good day to do it.

I wholeheartedly love my Savior. I learn more about Him every day and how he is a bigger part of out lives than i had ever thought before. Everything around us testifies that He is. All of the plants and animals and all of the magnificent things we see in the solar system. I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ, i know that the other churches all have pieces of the truth. But the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has the fulness of the gospel. Every single question that anyone has can be answered through faithful and diligent seeking. I know without a doubt that the book of mormon and the bible work hand in hand testifying of the authenticity of the Savior and both are absolutely needed in order to know, actually know, the truth. Joseph Smith saw God the Eternal Father and Jesus Christ and was called as the Prophet in these last days to restore the priesthood and the true church of Christ. All of the following prophets who were called after Joseph Smith were called by the same diety and hold the same authority. True happiness can only be found through and in Jesus Christ. He is the truth, the light, the way. Families can be together forever, and i bear my witness of these things boldly in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

I love y'all
Elder K. Olsen

Great Study Plan

So I've been out a lot of weeks I realized. It seems like Monday comes by really quickly. But first of all I want to let y'all know that I got both easter packages from y'all. Elder Harding thinks that you want me to hurt him. Because I got rockets, a gun that shoots foam discs, and a whole bunch of water balloons. It was pretty funny. But we've really enjoyed all of the awesome candy as well.

Easter Sunday went great! First I wanted to say that I thought it was pretty funny when I heard that dad was going to sing at stake conference. Because I actually got sucked into singing in the choir yesterday. So somehow people have to listen to both of us sing this year. It actually went really well, mostly because everyone else was singing. But I still had fun, i'll probably try out the choir when I get home.

The Leadership Training Meeting went awesome! I love when I can be around Pres. Holm. I hope that I can be like him in the future. You can tell how much he loves the gospel and moving the work forward. He knows how to get things done and I learned a lot at this meeting. Mostly about how fantastic and important planning and having your records organized is. So I've become much better at planning and setting goals.

Actually Elder Harding and I have come up with a really great study plan that will help me learn a lot by the end of this year. I don't know if i told ya'll this but back in Conway there was a member who is the granddaughter of Cleon W. Skousen. Well I have a few of his talks and I absolutely love him so I asked her why he was so awesome. She said it was because he studied everything out and wrote it all down. So I went and bought some study journals.
(Also just a quick side note I don't need another daily journal because Elder Cramer gave me one that looks like the awesome brown leather one that I already have.)
But anyways what i'm doing is taking the Book of Mormon and studying every verse deeply and writing down what I learn about it. If I follow my study plan I will be able to finish the Book of Mormon like that by the end of the year. And if I keep consistent with how much i've been writing I should write a little over 1500 pages. So i'll be really excited to show y'all all those when I get back. Then at the same time i'm reading the book of mormon normally and should be able to read it twice by the end of the year. Then I'm studying the Bible and D&C and should write quite a bit about those as well by the end of the year. Then next year I plan on having the new testament done like the Book of Mormon by July 2013! So it's pretty great that I have my studies planned out for the rest of my mission. One less thing I have to worry about!

Bad news though! That member sold the Corvette! and I never got to get my picture taken in it! I didn't even get a picture of it. But oh well I plan on getting one eventually, I guess the mission isn't a good place for it...

Unfortunately with Peggys baptism I wasn't able to go and actually I don't think that it actually happened. Whenever someone gets baptized in the mission everyone gets a text about it. There wasn't any text about her this past weekend.

I was able to see elder Brimhall at the LTM and he said that she was moving as well. So we'll see what happens with that I guess.

Oh! I forgot to tell you that Elder Brimhall was at the LTM! Which is great because only people in leadership positions were invited and he's not in a leadership position. Which can only mean that he is soon going to be! Either he'll be a District Leader somewhere or he is going to train. But it was also funny because the other missionary that's in conway right now came out with me in the MTC. He told me that he hears my name about every other hour in Conway. So that made me feel really good!

Right now Hartsville is probably the best place ever!

Elder K. Olsen

Conference!!

Conference!!!

So conference was pretty dang awesome now wasn't it? I forget who said it but during the last session a member of the seventy talked about how much missionaries love getting letters. Now tell me that conference isn't inspired by the Lord after hearing that.

Unfortunately we didn't have any investigators come to conference from our fliers. The problem is that no one goes to the building anymore to watch it. Because people can watch it on their phones, televisions, tablets, etc. Nothing against it though, that's exactly what I'm going to do when i get back home.

So last tuesday I had a small sore throat and stuff but what was really weird was on friday my voice was really cracky and it was hard to talk. Saturday my voice was gone completely! Try being a missionary preaching the gospel but not being able to say one word. I didn't realize how much i enjoyed talking to other people. But then a miracle happened on Sunday. So at that point if i yelled it sounded like a whisper, but then i coughed and could talk... not sure how that worked out. But the best part is that it happened when i was filming a useless video. So i got my miracle on video!.... In other news i still haven't set up my dentist appointment, ya'll know how much i just love the dentist. So i've been slacking but i'll get it taken care of.

Basically i don't really NEED anything right now i'm pretty well off actually. But you know how i am, i practically enjoy getting anything that you'd think i'd want. Now for where i eat, i eat anywhere. So basically if you send a gift card anything works... except taco bell, grandma smith has that taken care of. I love you Grandma!

So i guess David Archuletta was in the MTC choir during conference. Honestly i couldn't tell you one of his songs and don't really know what he looks like. Besides i was paying more attention to the Prophet and Apostles, because they're just pure awesomeness!

So there was a baptism in Conway a couple weeks ago that i forgot to tell you about. Unfortunately i wasn't able to go to it. But the best part is that i taught her the first lesson on the 13 and then got transferred on the 14. So i only really taught her once. But Catherine is 11 years old and she really wanted me to come to her baptism i guess. It didn't surprise me at all that she was getting baptized. She had gone to church with her mom who has been less active for a while due to her nursing job. But she told us she wanted her family to get sealed in the temple for eternity and knew that baptism is a step to doing that. Then she asked us who Joseph Smith was... I asked her if she knew who Adam, Moses, or Noah was.. she had no clue. Ha! and i thought i was in the south. But that just shows how elect she is, the spirit told her it was true and she didn't even know what a prophet was.
In other baptismal news Peggy another awesome investigator from Conway will be getting baptized on the 7th. So pray really hard that i will be able to find the means to go that.

Also i was hoping i could ask for y'alls help. We need lots of prayers because our goal for the month of April is two baptisms. Which i think a lot of people think is way to much for the area at this point. But i know it can happen because the spirit confirmed it for us and as long as we work as hard as we can the Lord will prepare the way for us.

Being a DL is great! It's really not that hard of a "calling" because all i really have to do is conduct district meetings every week. I call the other missionaries to get their numbers for the week and then report the districts numbers to the zone leaders. And when the other missionaries in the district get someone prepared for baptism i'm the one who gets to go and do the baptismal interview. Besides that I just do other missionary stuff. But also there is a Leadership Training Meeting on the fifth! Since I'm a district leader i get to go to it! So I'm super excited for that!

Hartsville apartment is great! It's still really big and actually there's just the two of us so it's not that bad........plus the first week we were here the AP's came by and gave us brand new beds still in the packaging! So i've been sleeping extremely well. We have a lot of good kitchen stuff as well, we're planning on making a whole bunch of cakes and pies today. So you may want to pray for that as well. Because in the three weeks that we've been here we've set off the fire alarm twice. He tried toasting bread in the toaster oven which caused the toast to burst into flames. And i tried making cookies in the oven and was very surprised when i saw smoke rolling out of the oven. But we're learning and it's pretty funny.

Well I think i had a pretty good letter today actually, yup just looked at it again and it's longer than usual i think. You're welcome.

But anyways i love y'all so much!
Elder K. Olsen

Viva Hartsvegas!

Viva Hartsvegas!

Well everything has been going fantastic here. It's great because spring is starting and everything is blooming. So you may get more flower and tree pictures than you would like but i'm trying to even it out. In the past week a lot has happened, so last monday i decided i was going to fix up my bike to make it ride really smooth. Because the past while something has been wrong with the back tire. Turns out that my axle was broken in half which then destroyed the inside of my back rim. Luckily a lot of missionaries went home from this area and left their bikes. So i've been able to salvage them for parts. My bike should be completely fixed by the end of the day.

As for my teeth i should get them fixed this week. But yes it's that one tooth and there's another one also. But it will all be taken care of.

I haven't done it yet but the guy with the corvette said i could get my picture taken IN the car. Oh and i almost forgot, i need you to gather up about $18,000 dollars because actually it's for sale. And my birthday is in a few months so there's one idea. Haha!

Well i conducted my first DDM as the district leader and i feel that it went really great. I did my first training on teaching by the spirit. I was able to ramble on for the whole hour and a half. It was really funny though because back in the MTC elder fugal and i always sang there is sunshine in my soul today. So when he came in the room he called playing the piano. So i told him to turn to that page number and he got really excited. But basically i got it figured out.

Now to describe Elder Harding, he's allowed me to use this description, he is a nerd. So basically we talk about Tron and Star Wars a little too often. But don't worry we have some great gospel discussions all the time as well. He's from Orem, Utah (he's in our area dad i just forgot where). He really enjoys the trumpet, played in marching band and is going to invent tron one day.

But in other news, we have some new investigators! We taught a lady named Miriam and she's just fantastic, she was a referral from a member and so we just went to her house and she was sitting on her porch. So we sat on the swinging bench and taught her the restoration. She should be coming to conference this week and when we were walking away we saw her reading the book of mormon! Then we had a short discussion with a girl named Danielle, and when we taught her about prophets and that one will be speaking this weekend it just clicked. So she said that she will come to the afternoon session on Sunday.

It's great, we made some conference invitations and we started passing them out to everyone. Well we got to church yesterday and people were talking about it and we realized that we have a two hour difference from Utah... so we fixed the flyers today and now we have to go replace all of the ones that we passed out.

So i don't know if any of y'all have seen the bible videos the church has been making, and if you haven't then i suggest you watch them right after you're done reading this fantastic letter. Go to www.lds.org/bible-videos and watch them because they are probably some of the greatest things ever, we've been going around showing them to all of the members. Also there's an app that you can get on your phones and tablets!

But anyway that's about all i got right now,

I love y'all!

Elder K. Olsen

Where in the World is Elder Kyle Olsen?

Hartsville!

Yup thats the name of my new area, I am a Hartsville Elder now. The cool thing is that I'm still in the same zone (or stake). I didn't really move that far. Conway was about an hour East of Florence, well Hartsville is about an hour North East. But I am a District Leader and so far I'm doing pretty good. There's only two other Elders in our District, Elder Fugal (aka my mtc companion) and Elder Hendricks. But here's an awesome story for ya! So my new companion is Elder Harding, he just got finished with his training. Guess who trained him? Elder Cramer! So yeah, I'm now serving with my brother which is really awesome!

But the thing is, we got white washed into Hartsville. I guess the last two missionaries here didn't get along very well. One of them finished his mission and is home now. So now we have a lot of work to do. When we got here the Elders previous had two investigators who haven't been taught anything. So since wednsday we've been able to teach both of them and they should be coming to church on sunday. They are, Bryant and Matthew.

So I'm not to sure if i've told y'all about the letter concept that our mission has been piloting, but the ward here is on fire and wants to do it so badly! Actually the Stake President attends this ward and he is probably the most excited member about this concept in the entire mission. He said that even if the mission didn't do it that his stake would do it anyway because its such a great idea. We were able to have dinner with him and his family last night.

Now one of the greatest things about Hartsville so far is that the southern accent is a lot deeper here. Hopefully I will catch on quickly.

By the way there's a member here with a cherry red 1971 Stingray Corvette, I plan on getting my picture taken with that car.

So it's pretty funny, a few days ago we got a message from the Assistants saying that Elder Harding is the designated driver. Well, he thought they were playing a joke, because he got his license back in July and he's only driven the 40 hours to get his license. So I'm re-teaching him how to drive. So far we've almost gone off the road, gone 60 in a 45mph zone, and stopped in the middle of the road. He's doing much better today though. It's actually really funny.

By the way just to let you know, the member with the corvette has a cousin who is a dentist who probably will be able to fix my teeth for free. I figured I would just let you know that.

As for being a District Leader so far i've been able to do it. It's actually really easy and I new how to do it the whole time. Now we haven't had a district meeting yet, and I have to set up and conduct that, but I'll tell y'all how that goes next week.

The ward mission leader wasn't here on sunday so we had to sit in for PEC, and it was funny because Elder Harding and I have been trying really hard to meet everyone. So we got in there and the bishop introduced us to everyone, but we already new all of them. Actually we had already taught one of their friends (new investigator), had dinner with one, we went to a relief society meeting on accident, and one of them gave us a quick tour of the church. I tell you that because it just felt nice to be on top of things.

I realized how much stuff I had acquired in Conway, I could barely pack everything. I was scared that the zipper on the bag was going to rip because I crammed so much stuff into there. But I still got it all!

Anyways I got to go, these computers only allow me to use them for 30 minutes so I have to type quicker!

Love y'all!

Elder K. Olsen

Transfers and Other News

Wait a minute? Tuesday?

So yesterday we were all over the place and when we came to the library it was packed so we just decided that we would do this tomorrow. Yesterday was awesome though. Bro. Rodgerson picked us up at 9 am and took us to the driving range. Then we practiced at the putting green and even tried out the sand trap for a while. It turns out I'm actually a pretty good putter, driving on the other hand... not as much. Bro. R said that i have the most consistent shot he has ever seen. The only problem with my shot is that it hooks to the right, a lot. So once i figure out how to hit the ball straight i could probably have a good game of golfing. But for the record this is my second time ever doing this. But we were able to do that for four hours!

Then we went over the the Varas homestead and chopped down some trees! Well it was mostly Elder Brimhall, i played football with the kids. It was really fun watching these huge trees fall over. Well after all of this we come to find out that we aren't aloud to use power tools... well now we know haha! Thats probably the reason the chainsaw got stuck in the tree for about thirty minutes. It was pretty funny because then we had to carve the tree with an axe to get out the chainsaw. But in the end no one was hurt!

But guess what everybody? Transfers! I leave tomorrow at 6am! I definitely wasn't too happy about leaving but honestly it was all that i could expect. I've been able to serve here for 7 1/2 months, which is pretty dang awesome. But in other news this last saturday i get a call from one of the assistants to the president and guess what he asked me? He was wondering if i will take the call of a district leader! Which is really cool because that means i can be really close to the missionaries in my next area. I'll get to go and serve with them for a day too. Now i just need to figure out what a district leader does....

So at church this last Sunday Peggy came up to me and she said. I just wanted to let you know that i've been praying a lot and i've decided that i want to get baptized! Which is definitely good news. I promised her that i would be at her baptism, so pray that i won't get shipped to the other side of the state. I wasn't able to talk to her too long though because after church was chaotic. So I'm in the foyer and at the exact same time, peggy tells me this, another investigator comes and asks me why we baptize at 8, a member of the church wants a blessing, then a few families are all trying to tell me goodbye. When they all left i just kind of stood there because i was in a few minutes of total chaos. It was awesome. But anyway i hope y'all can come out to pick me up when i'm done with this mission thing because there's a lot of people that i want y'all to meet.Side note: John came to church!

I always get to the computer and i try to remember what y'all want me to talk about. And i know you would answer "anything" but still, y'all ask me questions in your letters and i can never actually remember when i sit down at the computer. Well i have a billion things to do today and a whole bunch of people i have to go see, and i honestly don't have enough time to do it! I love being a missionary.

And i love y'all too!

Elder K. Olsen

Pictures from last weeks P-Day, including the Sky Wheel

Fun Filled P-Day

Kay so i don't have a lot of time to write today because we have tons of plans for Pday. I'm actually in the library right now in flip flops and my snowbird hat, which really threw off the employees. It was pretty funny. But today we're going to a members house to hang out and play baseball with the youth. Then a couple other members will be taking us to the beach for lunch and we'll be able to ride the sky wheel, i guess it's a big ferris wheel on the beach. Then we get right back to teaching!

But church was amazing! We had a ton of investigators at church, on saturday we taught the Kellets and they are all on date for april 7, and they all came to church and loved it. The members were so great too, it was the perfect sunday for the Kellets to come. Then Lillian came to church also and we'll be teaching her again tonight! She's really good friends now with the members as well. Peggy wasn't able to come to church because her knee is hurting her really bad, but she's getting it taken care of this week and "should" be able to come to church next week.

We find out about transfer calls on saturday! I'm freaking out because there's a really good chance that i'm getting transferred. Because i've been here 7 months and i just finished training! But if i could just stay one more transfer that would be great because we have a lot of baptisms coming up!

We were finally able to talk to John again this week but we haven't been able to see him. But the problems that delayed his baptism are being taken care of so that's a plus!

The Jennings neighbor that we are teaching is Donnie. He's a really awesome guy with a really awesome car. We haven't been able to teach a full lesson yet, but he's really excited about coming to church and has actually told the Jennings a couple times that he is excited. It's nice when the investigators fellowship the members on their own.

We got the car back this week! My legs needed it too. I'm sure biking can be fun and everything, but it's not as great when you're being forced to do it. Plus we've been having bike troubles this week. My bike started making this really loud screeching sound, but eventually we took care of it. Elder Brimhall crashed on his bike this week as well. But that's because he built a jump went off it and didn't quite land it.. On the bright side i got the whole thing on video! Another Elder Olsen documentary.

So spring is actually beginning here. There is pollen everywhere! We wake up in the morning and the car is covered in this yellow dust. But luckily my allergies haven't been reacting.

Anyways i love y'all!

Elder K. Olsen