Short and Sweet

Familia!

 

So guess where i just came from? The zoo! I love the zoo, although the animals weren't quite as exciting this time. But still it was fun because we were able to go with the Toynes.

 

Speaking of the Toynes. Jamey got baptized! I know y'all already know that from facebook and stuff. But still it was awesome! Our ward mission leader actually baptized her and yup! I confirmed her. I sure have gotten to do a lot of confirmations on my mission.

 

Guess what else we got this week? A car! We got a brand new 2013 chevy cruze. On the downside we only got it until June 12.... It was funny we picked it up at 9:30pm in Irmo. Which is probably a 30 minute drive from our home. Do you know what time we got home? 11:15pm... Yeah we got a little lost. I had no idea which way to go. We were also a little late because we stopped by at Taco Bell at 10:30.

 

So heres a funny story. It's kind of sad, but still funny. So the other day Elder Bowen was playing with his camera and accidently deleted all of his pictures. Even the ones from the mtc, i was very concerned about him hitting me or something. We ended up just sitting there in awkward silence for a while.

 

Well I don't have a ton of time today because i'm using a members computer to write. But it was a great week, we had fun!

 

I love y'all!

Elder K. Olsen

Convertible Pumpkin Ride

Well hows it going?!

 

So something kind of exciting. I took a ride in a convertible this morning to the library. I really can't remember the last time, or if ever I've done that before. Now this was a bright orange pt cruiser with a painting of a desert scene on the back. I've always kind of laughed at those things but they are way comfortable. And it was a lot of fun just to be in a convertible. That member is actually about to be a called as a ward missionary. So we'll be able to ride in the "pumpkin" (as he calls it) a lot more.

 

Yesterday was great! We were biking to go see some people and we got absolutely drenched! We went to see a family where we had only met a couple members and we hadn't been able to sit down with all of them yet. Well we knocked on the door and the whole family was there. And they had to let us in because it was a downpour and they would probably feel super guilty if they didn't. So they gave us some towels and we were able to dry off and teach there whole family the first lesson. The teenagers were definitely more interested. The father is from mexico and doesn't speak much english which made it kind of difficult. But hopefully a few of them will be coming to church this upcoming Sunday.

 

Also another day we had a lot of fun. We were going to be having dinner up at the bishops house by the lake. Well there is no other members, less-active or active, former investigators, or anything in that general area. And it takes us a good 45 minutes to bike over there. So we decided that we were going to knock up there... for 5 hours. And we did and it was awesome! We actually taught 4 lessons. None of which we were sitting down. But still it's good. One man we have particularly high hopes for, he didn't know anything about what we believed in. But once we shared it with him he seemed very interested. He was on his way to work so we had to let him go. But we gave him some pamphelets and will be seeing him again soon.

 

It's been great here though. Since Elder bowen and i have been working so hard we've been seeing a lot of miracles. The ward is starting to point us out to good less actives to go and see. We even got a referral yesterday! Which is actually the first one that i have recieved in this area! The members are hopefully seeing how much work we are doing, and because of that they are willing to let us teach their friends. Everyone member we talk to always brings up somebody which they are working with. It's exciting because i feel that we're going to see a lot of miracles coming soon.

 

This week should definitely be very productive. Today we're going to go to the state museum (I'll take lots of pictures!). Tomorrow is interviews with president holm and the no more strangers fireside. Friday Jamey will be getting baptized. Then we have lots of appointments and people to go see throughout the rest of the week. Also we have a lot of members feeding us which is always great!

 

Tell Dad that i think that he should go do the driving test thingy. If he needs help studying for the written part ask sadie and mikayla to help. They study every once and a while. I mean.. why not? That's just me though ;)

Well I love y'all and i love hearing all the stories from home. I couldn't be a prouder big bro.

Elder K. Olsen

Happy Mothers Day...Again

So I will be recapping my week and some of it might sound familiar from yesterday. But oh well!

 

So i don't really need to update on biking. Needless to say we've been biking a ton and today i have to put a new tube in cause i got another flat tire. I could probably patch it but i have a lot of extra tubes and i just don't feel like patching this tube again.

 

Also this week Elder Bowen and I did a service project! Theres a member who needed to put metal roofing on his trailer, and also put siding around the bottom, and there was some plumbing to get done as well. Well Elder Bowen and i weren't aloud on the roof, which pretty much left us the siding. But we actually had almost too many people show up. So for about an hour we were just standing around, or maybe carrying some stuff. But then someone comes around the front and says, "Hey we need a skinny person!" Without thinking i volunteered because i really was tired of just standing around and wanted to contribute. Well they take me to the back of the trailer where the skinny person was needed. Okay so they have a wooden deck on the back of the trailer, and the trailer is held up on cement block pillars. The siding needed to slide between the trailer and the deck. What they wanted me to do was get on the outside part of the cement block pillars so that i could feed this siding through. Well between the siding and the pillars was about my shoulder width (not very much). So when they slid this in i had to drill it into the deck. So now i am under a trailer in a very small spot and it's very dark, did i mention they just put the siding in so now i'm under a trailer with the siding complete? Well except for one small part... ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TRAILER! So now here i am belly crawling over pipes and in mud to get out of this crazy mess. Oh yeah, i forgot to mention one little part. Did you know that underneath trailers there are about 10,000 spiders complete with their own webs?! My hat is still covered with webs. But just to show that God really hears and answers prayers. I said a prayer before i went in that i wouldn't be scared and that nothing would harm me. And i wasn't, in fact i was having a lot of fun realizing how great of a story this would be and how much attention i was getting. Then Elder Bowen and I helped dig out the shape for one of those thick plastic ponds. Once you go down a couple feet there is tons of clay and fire ants. I only got bit once... Elder Bowen on the other hand stepped in the ant hill. But don't worry, he's a tough rancher from wyoming and is just fine. ;)

 

I know that we've done a lot this week but i wanted to tell y'all about the service project so much that I've kind of forgotten what else i wanted to talk about.

 

We had an experience with a man this week who wanted to prove us wrong by having us read the bible. He kept throwing verses at us, he'd be like, "well what do you think about this verse?" And i would say something like, "I completely agree with that verse." Which usually didn't make him happy. He kept on telling us that we didn't need the Book of Mormon and should stop listening to what we've been told. He then told us that we should read the Bible so we could see the truth. I told him that I had read the bible twice and hadn't found anything that contradicted the book of mormon. But i don't think he understood because he just kept saying, "I know you've read the book of mormon but you need to read the bible." And it just kept going on and on. I realized how much knowledge i had truly gained over my mission, because if we had bible bashed i could have destroyed him. I knew that wouldn't get us anywhere though... but i wanted to at some points. I am happy to say i have never been part of a bible bash on my mission. Well anyway we continued to bear fervent testimonies and eventually Elder Bowen challenged him to read the Book of Mormon (I'm so proud). And he agreed and told us to come back in a month. He also gave us one of his bibles so that we could read it to find out that we're wrong. So we'll see what happens in a month!

 

Also after looking at a few verses at the bible he gave us I've realized why we state we believe in the bible as long as it's translated correctly. Because whenever we tell someone we read the king james version, they say they read the new american version or something. Then they always say, "it's basically the same thing but it's just put into simpler words without all the thees and thous." And since I've never looked at other versions for myself i just agreed with them. Let me say that they do not basically mean the same thing! By altering words, it alters meanings, which alters teachings, parables, doctrines, and stories. By reading a chapter out of the KJV and the NAV you will not read the same thing. It may be similar, but its not the same. I just find it interesting when people throw revelation at us and how it says that, "you should not add or take away from this book." Referring to the Book of Mormon, when by translating the Bible to simpler terms they are themselves doing exactly what that verse says not to do. As you can tell I've ranted about this before. I'm just not a fan when God's words and doctrines are altered and changed to something false to make it "easier."

 

Well anyways enough about that. I love being a missionary! Elder Bowen is doing great and i can tell will becom a great missionary. I see him definitely being a trainer, or an assisstant to the president. Because he definitely is capable of taking those responsibilites once he gets the hang of things. We are being exactly obedient and having a fun time doing it.

 

Well I talk to y'all later!

 

Love ya!

Elder K. Olsen

Another Great Week.

Another great week!

So this week has been full of fun and rain and excitement and stuff! So first off let me tell y'all about transfers and how that all went down. So on tuesday i went to Irmo with the other trainers and we had a meeting with President Holm. This transfer there were 12 elders and 16 sisters that came into the mission. I actually still feel somewhat shocked and surprised that i got called to train. President said there were 150 elders to choose from, I tend to look around and think to myself that there are others that are so better qualified. One cool thing though is that out of the 12 elder trainers 5 of them were with me in the mtc. So after our meeting the trainees all came in and had sack lunches, the trainees sat down next to a trainer and then we were teamed up with that guy the rest of the day. And guess who came up to me? Elder Bowen! We ate lunch, had another meeting, then went out to work for a couple hours. And i was just excited to make this an experience that he would always remember. They told us to bring a book of mormon per companionship to pass out. But i said, nah we can pass out two, so we brought two books of mormon. We got dropped off at an apartment complex and a guy drove in and parked playing some loud gangsta music. So since it was such an awkward moment i took Elder Bowen over to the car and we waited for the guy to get out. We ended up teaching him and Elder Bowen placed his first book of mormon. Then we knocked on a door and taught another lesson and i gave away my book of mormon. We had so much success and it was so much fun! He still talks about that first day.

Then transfers came along and Elder Bowen was called to Gilbert ward with me. He later told me that he felt that we would be companions. Which is awesome because i felt the same way. So he was living in St. George Ut the last 8 months but he claims wyoming to be his home. He's got an older and younger sister. He's a hard worker and does what is right. Although i have had the privelege to point out a couple of rules to him. I love training. The thing i really love about him is that he's not a shy trainee who won't talk like i was. Honestly he will speak as much as any of my other companions, and he knows what we are teaching. He's just learning how to teach and what some of the rules are. I've never worked so hard on my mission and strived to be more obedient. I can already see the habits that he will develop on his mission because of how i have acted the first few days. Now he reminds me to say our daily quotes, and prayers, and making sure we keep the schedule. If i can be i would say that i'm very proud. Between him and Brimhall i would say i got the best two trainees in the mission.

Also the sisters have now moved into the southern part of the ward boundaries. It was so much fun helping them get set up. Because as the district leader i am the only one who had been in this area and one of the sisters is also a trainee. So that put a lot of work on my shoulders and i loved it. I just had this huge list of things that i wanted to get done. I wanted to make sure that the sisters didn't have to be stressed or confused about their area. So i made sure they had an area book, and roster, and map, and they knew who to see and where they lived. But then it was funny because on wednesday we came to the church so i could give them the car and guess what? There was a nail in the tire! And guess what else? The senior missionary over the cars was not able to answer calls the rest of the day and he's over the money to fix the cars. So we couldn't even go get a new tire for the sisters. So we ended up putting the donut on the car and they made it home safely. Luckily they've gotten everything all taken care of with it now.

So just for fun we added up all the miles which we have biked this week from wednesday evening to last night. And we did 76. It was so much fun because i bike a lot faster then him so he's got to work hard to keep up with me. Especially up hills, I"m lighter so i go faster. My long legs may also have something to do with it. Also we've been having strange weather here in south carolina. It's been cloudy and rainy all week and it should be for the rest of this week as well. Luckily we've been inside teaching when the bad rain happened... except last night. We were soaked! But we had fun. After you're soaked you make it an effort to hit the big puddles for fun. Also I've realized that biking a lot makes my allergies go insane! I had to buy some eye drops and now i wear sun glasses even when it's cloudy (my men in black ones) because it blocks the wind. So actually if you could send me some flonase or something that sticks up my nose and sprays and feels horrible but makes it so i don't need a thousand tissues a day, that would be awesome.

Guess what else?! So Jeff and Anisha have a 18 year old daughter Jamey. And Jamey is now on date to be baptized on the 25 of May! Isn't that awesome?! She even announced it herself in Relief Society yesterday. I love being a missionary, I just love it and i don't know how else to explain it.

So with Mothers day coming up we actually won't be able to have phone calls this year. Evidently there's been a lot of problems in the mission with missionaries calling home when they're not supposed to so they've actually told us that we won't be able to this year, but if we can fix the problem we can call on Christmas. Which I'll be home for Christmas so that does me no good! But whatever, at least I'll see y'all in a few months! That's way better than a phone call!

 

Anyways I love y'all!

Elder K. Olsen

Just Kidding!

I'm totally gonna skype y'all on mothers day! 

Love you!

Elder K. Olsen

Biking Training District Leader

So i basically have the rest of my mission planned out!

 

So saturday we get a call from one of the assistants to the president and we missed it so he left a message. Well in the message he said, "Hi Elder Young, give me a call back when you can thanks." So I'm all teasing him about how he's gonna have to train and have leadership and he was not happy about it. So we call back and Elder Young is talking, then Elder Young says, "yeah, he's right here." and puts it on speaker phone. Well do you know what Elder Lash says? He says," I"m calling on behalf of president holm to call you as a district leader." I was like, "ok." Then he did some unecessary small talk. Then he said, "i'm also calling on behalf of president holm to call you as a trainer." I practically stopped the car in the road when he said that. Then he called back later leaving a message saying that sisters will be moving into our ward and they will be taking our car and we'll be biking.

So yes, i will be a biking training district leader with only sisters in the district.The next three months are going to be verrry interesting.

 

Speaking of training! Guess what?! So do y'all remember that last person i "trained"? Elder Brimhall? Well it's not public yet, but he has been called as the new assistant to the President. I couldn't be a prouder papa ;)

 

Well about the national forest. I took tons of pictures so y'all will see what i'm talking about. But just to give you an idea, the park used to be called congaree national swamp. But that didn't bring in many tourists so they changed the name. So it's actually not a forest at all, but a boardwalk through a really awesome swamp! There's a lot of weird things in there.

 

Today is going to be fun, after e-mailing we plan to go bowling for a while and then we are going to Shealy's. I'm not sure if i've explained shealy's yet. Shealy's is an all you can eat barbecue place over in batesburg. Tons of fried chicken, pork, baked mac 'n cheese, hash, pulled pork, and i think they have a salad bar. But last time i ate there i had the worst night sleep of my life because i ate waaaay too much food and it was all pure sugar and grease. I absolutely love this place.

 

Well i don't have tons more to report on this week. We've just been visiting a lot of people that Elder Young wanted to see again for the last time. We've also been getting fed a ton. It's always sad to leave an area. But boy do you get fed a lot! I am just constantly full!

 

Oh i do remember that the youth here had a big yard sale at the church for their fundraiser for camps. Well we decided to stop by and i bought myself a great office chair for 5$! No longer will i study in a small old wooden chair. Now i have a leather chair with arm rests, with wheels, and it swivels, and it's just awesome! I also bought a stuffed animal squirtle from pokemon. Because we all know that squirtle is the best pokemon.

 

Well everyone, that's my life and i love it!

I love all y'all too!

Elder K. OLsen

Great Week

I had a great week this week!

 

So first i want to tell y'all about church yesterday. So on wednesday we came home late after working and there was a post it note on the door which said, "we had a speaker cancel for this sunday and bishop suggested you. I'm all for it." Then on the back it said, "Elder Olsen. 15 minute talk. Your topic." Did y'all know that I've always wanted a talk to talk about whatever i want to talk about? Well it turns out getting an assigned topic is a blessing. I could not for the life of me come up with something that i wanted to talk about. I probably came up with 3 new talks every day. But they never felt right. Then i knew that i would get my letter from dad on Saturday. I also knew that he would give me some sort of wisdom like he always does. I decided that whatever that was is what i would speak on. Well Dad talked about the little things in life and how they compound into big things. I realized that would tie perfectly into one of the talks i had come up with, i would just put that in towards the end. I said the talk a few times in my head and i was ready to go.... Then Sunday came around and i went up and sat on the stand. And i had a strong feeling that i wasn't going to talk about what i had planned. So I prayed for inspiration to talk, i practically begged for it. And do you know what verse pops into my head?! Now i can't quote exactly right now but basically open thy mouth and i shall fill it with my words. That should've been more comforting than it was. Because i really like having a plan when i get up to the pulpit. But nope i got up there and started talking and it was awesome! I've never had the spirit completely take over like it did there! I ended up starting with the small talk and then reading the letter that dad sent me and i went from there. I talked about prayer, scripture study, and church attendance and the importance of them. I don't remember what i said. But i sure remember how i felt. I wasn't even nervous when i stood up, it was just so calm and peaceful. And since i wasn't reading anything I made eye contact with everyone. It's just such an amazing feeling to actually have the Lord put HIs words into your mouth if you let Him.

 

In other news a dog tried to bite me this week. We went up to a trailer and there was an old dog under the porch. He was barking a lot but his tail was wagging and he wasn't running at us. So we got closer and closer to the door. Then the owner came out and we asked if his dog would bite. He said, "not that one, but the one inside the house probably will, Oh! there he goes!" This big 'ol pit/lab mix comes running between his legs down the stairs at us and the owner doesn't even try to stop him. So of course i just freeze in terror. The dog comes up to me and starts nipping at my hands and legs. Then finally just ran off with the other dog into the woods. Then the dog came back and the owner stuck him in the car. He was a really nice guy. But not concerned at all about his dog attacking us. But on the bright side we got a return appointment and will be seeing him this week.

 

Also transfers is coming up really soon and we'll get transfer calls this saturday. Most likely Elder Young will be leaving and I'll be staying. But who knows what could happen? We also know that the Gilbert ward will be getting sisters this next transfer so the ward will now have four missionaries. The sisters will be assigned out in Gilbert and will most likely be taking the car. Which will be ridiculous still in this area! It will take over an hour to get to batesburg and lake murray. The work is possible with just biking of course, but i feel it's going to go a lot slower.

 

So i admit that having only 3 months left is a verry bitter sweet thing. I mean honestly it's exciting to come home and see everybody again. Anyone who says it's not doesn't love their family. But I still don't want it to end. I don't like comprehending how much time i have left. But I have learned that there are two ways to finish your mission. You can either finish it working harder and stronger than you ever have. Or you can become lazy and slowly die. I've had the opportunity on my mission to see both. And i made the decision a long time ago how i would finish my mission. And there is no way that i am slowly going to die. It doesn't look fun at all. I want to get to my last day and then realize it's over, I want to be able to not even notice how much time i have left because i'm working to hard to notice. That's my plan anyways.

 

Well today we'll be going to congaree national forest today wherever that is. We have a lady named Sister Da Rosa who takes the entire district out to awesome places. And since she drives she can take us out of our area. Got to admit, I have loved every single Pday since I've been here.

 

Well the sky is blue the church is true

Love y'all!

Elder K. Olsen

Photo Album

I uploaded some new photos -- see the link to the right for the latest album & slideshow.

Enjoy :)