HaPpY BiRtHdAy KyLe!

20!

Alright so I'ma be 20 in just two more days. I gotta say that i still feel like a little kid that just has really long legs. But anyways i guess everybody wants to know how transfers went. So Elder Harding is now serving over in Columbia right next to the temple actually. While i am here in hartsville with..... Elder Dietz! Pronounced Deets. But if that sounds familiar its because while i was first in Conway there were two elders in Marion which was in our district. Elder Dietz was one of them. He is from Las Vegas, so that's my second companion from there. But he has been serving for about 16 months now. He's a bit shorter than me, but we found out this morning that he can run faster than me. I'm not to good at running. But he's a funny guy who wants to get work done, so I'm very thankful to have him here with me.

Now last Monday we were able to go to Darlington raceway. Plus our ward mission leader played an awesome trick on us. So we got outside of the track right next to the tunnel that the cars drive through to get inside. When all of a sudden the pace car drives out. Which is a new Dodge Charger with 475 horsepower. But anyway we get in the back seat and he drives into the tunnel and we are inside the racetrack taking pictures and stuff. Then he does something Elder Harding and I weren't expecting, he turns onto the track! Then he did about ten laps, going around 85 on the turns and 115 on the straightaway... it was fun. Don't worry though i got the whole thing on video.

After that we went fishing at our ward mission leaders backyard pond and i actually caught some fish. But even more amazing i actually picked up the crickets and hooked them myself. Let me say that again, i picked up a freaky cricket with my own hand, and put it on a hook. Then when we were done fishing we had some peach cobbler.

Okay i want to really thank broken in blues, i probably won't have any time, well maybe. But anyway I'm gonna send them a card. Because i didn't think it was possible to have too many ties. But i think i may have too many ties. I'm currently at 171. Sorry Sadie i gave away those ties that you told me to burn. But at least i don't have them anymore!

Also thank you for the birthday package. It was actually really funny because we got home and opened the mailbox and Elder Dietz and i got really excited because there was a stack of eight letters and a box at the door. Then i felt really bad because they were all for me. But if you want to do it again that's okay. But i have to say that i love that pillow tie, I'm going to use it at church next week.  Also i really liked that Captain Moroni figure, although i took a sharpie to his face because i think he looks a lot better with a beard... and i was right. 

So Elder Dietz has a cook book and I've gotten really into cooking. I plan on making tater tot casserole and peach glazed chicken. Also I'm gonna make some traditional southern chicken wings and a Orange Julius. Plus some other things, but it's actually a lot of fun. I'll let y'all know how that turns out next Monday after I've tried to make all of this stuff.

David is doing great. He's getting a lot of fellowship at church and he actually said that he has seen a few people during the week and they all stop and talk to him. Which I'm very grateful for because he is a really great guy. It's amazing to see how the holy ghost has changed him. He's so much happier and he laughs more. He's not as reserved and he can speak faster actually. I love being a missionary!

Well i love y'all and I'll have a better update this upcoming week!

Elder K. Olsen

Awesome Teaching Experience

Transfers!!!

Well unfortunately this past weekend something happened with David. We had his baptism all set up and everyone was at the church to attend, we had five minutes until it was supposed to begin and David wasn't there, so we went to go and get David. Well we got to his house and he came outside and started talking to us. It was too bad, because he lost his wallet so he was running a little late, but thankfully we went to the church and baptized him.  Actually it was really cool because we had taught him a couple of times with one of the priests here in hartsville and so we actually let him baptize David. Then we had two other priests be the witnesses which now makes all of them want to have a turn to get in the water and come teaching with us. I absolutely love baptisms, the spirit is always so strong. My favorite part about them though is the sound when they go under the water and come back up. I wish i could just record that sound and listen to it over and over. But David got confirmed yesterday and all is well. 

Now transfers are happening on Wednesday and Elder Harding is getting transferred. Which is a bummer but we were able to baptize twice this transfer. Plus we have a lot set up for the upcoming transfer. I'm definitely gonna miss him, we had good times. But I'm very happy that the Lord has allowed me to stay here In Hartsville a bit longer. Also i'm happy that I'll get to stay here with all these people that i love for my birthday, plus once this transfer is done i will hit my year mark. Which will mean that i was able to stay in this zone (or stake) for my first year. Right now I've been in this zone longer than anyone who is currently here now.

We're pretty excited for the rest of this day because we're gonna have some fun! Our ward mission leader can pull some strings and get us into Darlington raceway. And i mean that I'll be in the middle and get to walk on the track. Plus our ward mission leader has a pond in his backyard and he said we can go fishing. So I'm pretty excited. We'll probably go to taco bell for lunch just to make it that much better!

So we had a really awesome teaching experience this past tuesday. We were at a members home because we were going to be teaching one of their sons friends. Who i believe is 14 years old. But his friend goes to young mens and has been to church a few times and basically knows everything we believe in. Well we sat down and were about to teach when there was a knock at the door. Well it turned out to be the boys (his name is Timmy) mom (her name is Amy)! She said that she was going home so that she could prepare her lesson for bible study that night but had felt a tugging in her that she should come over. She had known and given the okay that we teach her son but wanted to come and hear what we were teaching. At one point she said that she's not really a denominational person and only goes to her church because it's around the corner. Later i asked her why she's not a denominational person. Boom! The flood gates opened and she told us everything wrong with her church and how it was holding her back and how she wanted truth. So teaching the Restoration was really easy especially with the members help. We invited them to be baptized but she said that she wanted to talk to her husband first so that she doesn't do anything behind his back,  which is understandable of course. But after the prayer she asked us a question, she said, "If Timmy and I choose to get baptized but my husband doesn't, can we still fellowship him?" So she wants to get baptized, and Timmy doesnt want to go to any other church because he knows this one is true. Now we just have to get the other two kids and the husband involved!

So something is exciting this month! We get to meet the general authority who is over all of the temples. I forget his name at the moment, but he is touring the mission just as Elder Pieper did a while back. And originally we were going to have to meet in Moncks Corner, which is 106 miles one way. Which as you know would have destroyed our miles for the month again. But it actually got changed to Sumter which is only about 30 miles away! Blessings from on high! So if you can't tell i'm pretty excited for that.

Well i want to thank y'all for all yer prayers and fastin. It really does help and i can see it affect the work here. Right now what we need prayers for is Timmy and Amy, and that we meet our goal of two baptisms in the month of June in Hartsville. 

 

Thanks for everything and i love y'all!

Elder K. (for kool) Olsen

Food and Familysearch.org

Hello, hello

Well this week was pretty awesome actually! It was funny because on Wednesday we had all of our plans fall through... even our dinner plan. But we made up for it that day because we got an Applebees card and i got steak and shrimp. So i was pretty happy. Also just to let everyone know how awesome i am eating i had Steak twice this week, and i had ribs twice this week. Plus i ate tons of other stuff... so yeah i definitely didn't get sent on a starving mission.

David didn't get baptized on Saturday but luckily he came to church and is pretty solid for June 2! It's great because he actually participated in Sunday school this week, which is great for him because he's kind of a hermit. Plus he reads all the time and watches BYU tv. Oh! last night we were teaching at his house and i got to see a firefly close up for the first time! It flew right in front of my face and it's awesome because it's like a floating light bulb. 

So a couple days ago we were driving down the road and when we pulled over and got out of the car we heard air coming out of the tire. Luckily when we were a mile away from home so we got it home and it was completely flat about ten minutes later. So Elder Harding and I changed our first real tire that wasn't during a mutual activity. So make sure that you do that mutual activity again with the youth because we actually remembered that!

Okay so this is really exciting! This last Thursday i was looking at my family history tree and i was looking back on the Guy side of the family. So then i looked on familysearch.org and found information for John W. Guy which is my great, great grandma. Well i gave that information to a member here who loves doing family history work on Saturday and guess what happened Sunday? She found three more generation on the first click!

So John W. Guy was born in Maryland on June 13 1885

His father was Samuel Guy born in Maryland 1885

His father was John Guy born in Old Monkland, Lanarkshire, Scotland in 1824!

And his father is James Guy born in Ireland in 1801!

So I have a lot of family history work to do but I'm really excited to get working on it. Plus i descend from Scotland and Ireland. 

Anyways i love y'all!

 

Elder K. Olsen

Missionary I Am!

We had a great week this week! On Saturday we were able to meet Elder Gonzalez of the presidency of the seventy and Elder Giddens of the seventy. Now if you watch Elder Gonzalez on conference you can see
that he is a great man. But it turns out that he's one of the funniest guys i've ever met! He just had the missionaries laughing the whole time. Then Elder Giddens is awesome! I think he just has the scriptures memorized. Because he would stand up and tell us to look up a whole bunch of scriptures and how they tie into another whole bunch of scriptures. But i was shown how amazing the Book of Mormon really is and how it is the key to missionary work. When it all comes down to it the Book of Mormon is how people are converted because the spirit tells them it is true. But the point of being a missionary is really getting them interested in it. So i have to know it really well so that i can liken the scriptures unto them.

Sunday was a really bitter sweet day. Elder Harding and i were talking about how satan was just beating us into the ground because nothing seemed to be going right. But at the same time we just had a good attitude and were happy all day. Plus we ended up teaching four lessons. So i really cant tell yall if yesterday was a good day or a bad day.

Unfortunately David was really sick yesterday and wasn't able to make it to church. We need to talk with him and with the mission president to find out if he can still be baptized on the 26 even though he hasn't been to church twice. But even if he doesn't get baptized on the 26 we can still baptize him on the 2nd of june so it
will still work out.  We haven't been able to see Bro. Connor again because we have been going by at all of the wrong times. But we'll get him eventually!  But on the bright side of everything is that our companionship goal for this month was 1 baptism and the districts goal was 3, and we did it! And the way june is starting to look we can see it is going to be great! I really really really hope that i'll be able to stay here in Hartsville for one more transfer with Elder Harding.

So Bishop Ensign here made Elder Harding and I promise to tell our moms something. We have gotten a reputation in Hartsville! That reputation is that we are hard workers and none of the members want us to leave. So that was a pretty happy moment for me.

I got to sing again in the choir yesterday and it was really fun! We sang "How firm a foundation" and we actually sounded really good. I'm probably going to be part of the choir when i get home because even
though i'm not a very good singer it's still really fun to do.

So on friday we had a dinner at a members house and they let me choose what i wanted to eat. So guess what everyone!? I got steak and potatoes, and sweet potatoes! I haven't been able to have a steak my
entire mission and i probably won't be having many more but i cherished every single bite. It was delicious!

Also just for the heads up i was able to think up a few more things that i would like to have for my birthday: I still love ties, I really love watches of every kind, I could use a bigger CD case (100cd+ case), and also some more music. Some CDs i would suggest are: Alex Boye, Mindy Gledhill is good, I like Donny Osmond, theres a Mormon Tabernacle Choir 100 greates hits or something. It has something to do with 100. Plus any other good music that yall can find.

So i really enjoyed the package that y'all sent me. I'm pretty happy to have an awesome baseball card. And i'm gonna have to use that writing tips card as well. That should help me out. Also i've been using those scripture reading cards. I hung it up on the wall. So thanks! I love packages!

But anyways I love y'all!


Elder K. Olsen

Probably our Best Week

Hey I'm back!

So it was really great to talk to everybody! But i've got to admit i'm thankful in a way that we can only do it twice a year. I have to say that i had absolutely no focus on missionary work for the rest of the evening. So luckily today is P-day and i have time to recuperate.

But just to restate, BAPTISM! We baptized matthew and he is such an awesome kid. Elder Harding was able to baptize his first person! Plus David was able to come to the baptism and he was also there at church this sunday! So right now he is really solid for May 26th. I know that all yalls prayers helped Matthew get baptized. So if y'all could do the same for David now that would be extremely helpful.

Sunday was actually pretty hectic. We got there and talked to Bishop and then i found out i was confirming Matthew. Which i don't mind doing. I'm actually finding out that i would rather do the confirmation than the baptism sometimes. I love having the spirit move upon me to give a blessing for a new member of the church. Then since it was mothers day it was a really emotional Sunday and everyone seemed to be crying a lot. Then we went into gospel principles class and found out that the teacher wasn't there so we just took over and began teaching. Luckily the lesson this week was the Church of Jesus Christ today. So basically a detailed restoration. Again a really spiritual experience. Then we went and talked to David and he really enjoyed church. Now that he has come once we believe that he can be baptized. He's not much for being a people person so coming to a packed church was a big leap of faith for him.

Also we sort of had a blessing in disguise the other day. Bro. Conner who is an extremely knowledgeable lawyer who we've been teaching has had no time to read the Book of Mormon. Elder Harding and I believe that if he can just read the Book of Mormon that he will be converted and become a bishop. Also the Conner family is a family of five. But anyway it turns out that Bro. Conner got staff infection in his leg and he has to stay at home for the week and he said he had all the time in the world to read the Book of Mormon and promised that he would. So pray that he will get better of course, but more importantly pray that if he reads the Book of Mormon he will find the truth in it.

Its going great in the district though! We both baptized this week. Cheraw has a baptism on friday! We have a baptism on the 26th. Plus when we get in contact with Maurice again we are going to put him on date for June 2nd (Which Cheraw also has someone on date for that same day). Then we have the Rodrick family who we will put on date for the 9th. John and the Johnsons (Family of 6!) we are planning to put on date for the 16th. Then we're fixin to put the Conners on date for June 23. So the work is amazing here and miracles are happening! I hope Elder Harding and i can both stay in Hartsville together for another transfer because we are planning to baptize every week in the month of June! Happy Birthday to me!

So i made fried chicken wings the other day. We went over to a members home and he believes in interactive dinners. So i cut the wings and fried them and put the sauce on them and they were ridiculously good! I'll have to make some for everybody when i get back because they are way better than KFC. Especially when you dip them in blue cheese dressing, which is actually the original way buffalo wings were eaten just to let you know.

Today was probably our best week. Its great that i almost say that every week isn't it? But we were able to practically hit all of our goals this week. The only one we missed was sacrament. We wanted four and got two. But i'm not complaining. Its actually really cool because Elder Harding and i have hung up some big graphs in the apartment that are keeping track of all of our numbers so that we can see the progression. In most areas the graphs are exponentially growing. Which actually coincides with whenever we sacrifice something and try to be even more obedient. Obedience brings blessings!

We drove to a place called Moncks Corner this week and it was a whopping 200 mile round trip! Yay! Did i tell y'all that one of our mission mottos is "I love tough things, I am the first to do tough things, I do tough things first!" So we are going to lose another 160 miles this Saturday, 360 miles down the drain! I love tough things! But the funny part about driving to Moncks Corner was that it made it possible for me to finally have and egg and cheese mcmuffin! Usually i can't because we leave the apartment after breakfast is over. So in this 100 mile trip we only passed one Mcdonalds! And it was five minutes from the church. We had to be there at 8:30 and we pulled into Mcdonalds at 8:25. So we were almost late to conference over a Mcmuffin. But it was totally worth it!

Plus we still passed car inspections because since i knew i was going to get Mcdonalds and that would cause the car to smell like Mcdonalds. I made sure to bring a can of febreze. So that when we got there we threw away the Mcdonalds trash and sprayed the car down with pumpkin spice. Which just reminds Elder Harding and i of Christmas. So basically we sprayed the scent of happiness in the car, which i believe helped us pass inspections. So i'm doing that for the rest of my mission.

Well I love y'all and i love being a missionary!
Elder K. Olsen

Chat with Kyle :)

We had a great chat with Kyle today.  It made it a Happy Mothers Day for myself and Paula -- and everyone else!  I snapped a few pics during our chat. Enjoy

This is the back of Kyle's missionary planner.  Awww...so sweet :)

He said he found this hat at the Walmart.  

 One happy missionary!

 

What...7 months until our next phone call :( 



The Spirit Wins Again!

Hello Erebody! (nope not a typo)

So this week has been great! This Sunday Matthew came again because he's such an awesome kid and we have now taught him everything. He will be getting interviewed for his baptism on Thursday, so i want to thank you for your prayers because i know they've been helping, just a little closer!
Then Maurice who is the referral from the Kings came to church yesterday as well. We were able to answer a lot of questions, all though i have to say i get stressed out during testimony meeting when investigators are there. Because sometimes, people just go on about their family and their life, when what i really want to hear for the investigators is what they believe in. But i think he enjoyed it anyways!

We also have another person on date. I think we told you about him, his name is David and he is awesome! We taught him the word of wisdom and when i said coffee, he said "well can i replace it with hot cocoa?"  Then we came back the next day and we asked him how the word of wisdom was going and he said "fine, i actually didn't have any desire to make a pot of coffee which is strange cause i usually would make two or three a day." So the spirit wins again!

I got to go up to Cheraw this week on exchanges and it was really fun. Because while we were up there we put someone on date which i am extremely jealous of because they aren't in my area! The spirit was just to strong and when we told her the first vision, shes all "that felt really good when you said that, that's true isn't it?" Then i explained to her the priesthood and told her that her last baptism didn't have it and really needed it so we asked her to be baptized by that authority. Well she said of course and she also said that whenever we come back she will just drop what she is doing to listen to us. Also her grandson has been reading the Book of Mormon, so that home is just a goldmine of awesomeness!

Also while i was in Cheraw i was able to do my first baptismal interview with someone that Cheraw has been teaching and he will be getting baptized on the 12. I thought that if i ever had to do that i would be really nervous. But surprisingly it was extremely relaxing. The strangest part about it was if you looked at what was really happening. Here i am some 19 year old kid and i'm counseling a 60 year old man, about tithing, and sabbath day, and even marriage counseling. Only with the spirit taking over could i do something as crazy as that sounds.

Okay and we just figured out when we can do the skype thing. So unfortunately we'll have to make y'all wait (well technically we have to wait longer.) But if we could use facetime on dads ipad at 6:30 my time so 4:30 for y'all. Then i will skype my mom at 7:00. We're only alotted 30 minutes for each family this time. So i'll make sure i have some things to talk about!

I have to write a shorter letter this week but i will talk to yall soon!
Love
Elder K. Olsen

 Kyle with The Lovells.  They are senior missionaries in Marion SC, and Sister Lovell made the tie Kyle is wearing in this picture

 Elder Olsen with his new companion Elder Harding.  Elder Harding looks a little confused in this picture

 And our favorite missionary, showing off his new haircut.