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

Happy late Thanksgiving...

Happy late Thanksgiving back!

Well first of all i guess i should tell you about my thanksgiving day. Well they actually told us not to work on Thanksgiving so it was literally a holiday which was weird. So we got up like normal and studied and got ready, then just sat around. It got really boring. So we went to the Varas home at 2:00. We hung out with there 4 sons for a while. Their oldest son is 15 and is REALLY into pokemon. I have to admit i felt really old when he talked about it. Because he trades pokemon online around the world, and there's about a bajillion pokemon now. I told him how i always played pokemon blue and red. He told me that he had seen pictures of those games and was really confused when i told him that they were black and white games. It was really strange.
But then we ate and ate and ate. They made a turkey wrapped in bacon (hallelujah). Then Sister Varas made biscuits from scratch, those were ridiculously tasty. Then we had yams, which were really good. Then all your other Thanksgiving goodies. Well we ate too much and didn't have any room for pie. So we took a break and went to beach, it was amazing! It was at sunset, there were maybe ten other people there. I got some really awesome seashells. Well after that fun trip we went back for pie. I practically had an entire blueberry pie to myself. I love pie.
Well after that we helped them put up Christmas decorations. I have to admit it felt really good to put together a Christmas tree with a family. After that we played stratego with the oldest son. I played him first and was completely ruthless! Actually he almost beat me but i got lucky. Then Elder Friel played him and lost, it was funny.

By the way, have i mentioned that Elder Friel plays football for the U of U? Thats why he's going home a few days earlier, so keep your eye out for him.

Besides Thanksgiving i have to admit that it was a pretty slow week. We really couldn't get that many lessons. And all of the people that we thought were doing great we haven't been able to get back in contact with them. Plus it's been rough with it getting dark so early. People just don't like you knocking on the door when it's dark (even though it's only 5:30).

I've been using that camera alot, too much actually. When you use a camera like i do you just eat through the batteries. But on the bright side i have about 80 pictures/videos of me. So that should make everyone alot happier than my last memory card. Actually one video i even give a tour of the house which i think is funny. But that's just cause i'm (humbly) funny.

Church on Sunday was really great. Except a lot of people weren't there because they were out of town for Thanksgiving. But I'm at this point were i know everyone in the ward. It's great because it feels just like home. Except a lot of people talk differently, and they're not all telling me that i need a haircut.

As for games, i think Phase 10 would be okay. We could play that on Pdays. Right now we have a chess set, so i'm getting pretty good. Because honestly, we're running out of things to do on Pday.

But i'm really excited to hear y'all at Christmas
Love y'all!
Elder K Olsen

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Well first of all! Guess who got baptized! The awesome Jane! I was blessed enough to perform the baptism too. I actually did it right... the second time anyways. But i'm just so excited that someone got baptized, she wanted me to give her your e-mails so she should be e-mailing you soon. The baptism went great, we had about 15 people come, so not a bad turn out. But everyone at church was extremely accepting and open to her. I'm very lucky to be serving in Conway.

But i also had to talk in sacrament yesterday. I didn't have much time to write my talk and i sort of procrastinated. But i wrote it yesterday morning and barely used it at all. Honestly i got up there and the spirit took over. I've never been so calm to give a talk in my life. I was able to talk for 18 minutes too (elder Friel timed me). My topic was on missionary work of course, and hopefully i got the ward excited to build the kingdom.

Last Monday was funny, there's not that much to do in Conway on P days. So after we had cleaned we just sat there for a while. Then we finally decided we were gonna decorate for Christmas. So yeah, we got a tree and lights and decorations all over the place. Then when we were done with that we found a 750 piece puzzle. Got to admit i spent way to much time on that puzzle. But we finished it!!!

Well Thanksgiving is coming up soon and we've had lots of offers. But we were reserved for Thanksgiving about a month ago. We are going to have dinner with the Varas family. Which is good because they're a big family. But besides that i don't know what we will do for Thanksgiving. Because i guess we don't work on that day. I don't know why, everyone is home and that is the perfect day to catch them. But orders are orders.

I got the package! I finally can use that camera now, and i've been taking pictures and videos like crazy, and a lot of them are of me and not trees! One video is really good because i give a tour of the house. I took pictures of all the ridiculously big bugs down here too. I'm telling you they are mutated. Big spiders, big bees, big mosquitos, and big cockroaches. But i'm getting used to them (sort of). I do laugh that i got sent to the south for that reason. I don't like bugs (they're bigger here), i'm not a huge fan of dogs (everyone has one), and those are the only two things really. But it's funny.

As for other investigators right now we're kind of lacking. We've found a few people, but no one is really willing to keep commitments. So we'll keep trying with some of them. But what we really need is member referalls. I'm tellin ya, the church will build as fast as the members want it to. Because knocking doors can only go so far.

I just want to let everyone know, i write in my journal every single day.
I've been trying to think about things that i want for Christmas. But I'm not quite sure if i really need anything. If you'd think I'd like it I'm sure I will. But if i can think of anything down the road i'll let you know.

But i love y'all!

Elder K. Olsen

Remember that one time we had the Cops called on us?

Hello everyone!

First off i am not district leader! I've got to say that was a huge relief, i'm just not quite ready for that yet. But anyways my new companion is Elder Friel. He's from Hawaii, he's taller than me and he plays football. He was actually called as a Georgia missionary and then the two missions combined and he became a South Carolina missionary. This is his very last transfer and it's actually his first time serving in SC. I'm learning a lot about contacting people, Elder Friel knows how to knock doors. Plus we invite about 10+ to be baptized every day. Him and I get along perfectly, we can work hard and can have fun doing it. I hear all these stories about how every missionary gets a companion that they don't like very much. But Elder Friel isn't the one, and hopefully i won't have one down the road either. But since this is his last transfer it most likely means that i will have at least one more transfer in Conway after this, possibly two. Because after he leaves I'll have to show someone else how to work the area, and if i get to train then I'll do that for 12 weeks. So my first area I'm going to spend either 6 or 7 1/2 months, which isn't bad because Conway is awesome!

Great news! Guess who's getting baptized on Saturday! Jane is! I'm so excited for her, she told us that she had told her daughter she was getting baptized on the 19 and then her daughter told everyone she knew on facebook. Well unfortunately Jane hadn't been to church yet so after she came to church yesterday we got special permission from President Holm. So pray that everything goes according to plan there. It was funny though, she was so scared at church yesterday. She's had a pretty rough life, and she hasn't come by very many nice people. So she was a little overwhelmed by all the nice people and didn't want to mess anything up. But she had a wonderful time and everyone was so nice to her. I'm so relieved that it went well. Something else that happened yesterday is i found out that i get to speak in sacrament next Sunday. So this next weekend is going to be crazy busy. But of course i'm going to speak on missionary work, i doubt that missionaries give talks on anything else. So that should be fun.

I was so excited to hear about Mikayla's picture winning! I really wish i could be there for these things, but definitely send me some pictures and keep me updated how the event goes. I actually remember that picture when you told me about it, i really like that one. By the way whats happened with my camera since i left. Has anyone been able to use it?It makes me really happy to hear that y'all are doing family scripture study and prayer, i know it will help bring us closer together. Down here i've seen too many family situations that are in a really bad place. I'm very thankful for the way i was raised, and there's a very popular billboard down here in the south. It says "the family that prays together stays together". I testify to that for sure.

So we have a couple bedrooms at the house and one room has queen size beds and the other has twins. Well when i got here with Elder Cramer we used the twins because that just what he had been doing since he got here. But Elder Friel and i agreed that we would upgrade to some beds that we can actually fit on. I've been sleeping so much better, but i have to admit it has made it harder to get up in the morning.

Different thoughts just keep popping into my head. But have i told y'all about mormon.org? Because it's amazing and you should check it out. Actually i even made a profile on there if you can find me. But if you have time watch the "I'm a Mormon" videos. That's all the entertainment that we really get but it's still awesome.About Elder Cramer you can just write 'Elder Cramer' a letter. His name isn't quite as common as Olsen. There's three Olsens in the mission, because we're awesome like that.

So It's been a little rough with this day light savings thing. It gets dark at about 6 which is way too early. People really aren't too happy about people knocking on there door when it's dark either, everyone gives us the excuse that it's too late and they're getting ready for bed or something. Even though it's 6: 30. We're definitely not gonna knock rich neighborhoods at night anymore. The other night we knocked this rich street and when we had finished we were walking back to the car and a policeman drove up and had to get our information because some door we had knocked on was annoyed. It was pretty funny to see the policeman's expression when he found out we were from Utah and Hawaii for some church. Now Elder Friel and I like to say "remember that one time we had the cops called on us?" I love being a missionary.

But anyway I love y'all and i know y'all already know but i just gotta keep tellin ya!

Elder K. Olsen

Two Transfers Down!

Two transfers down!

So we definitely enjoyed our extra hour of sleep on Saturday night. It's especially nice to wake up when it's actually light in the morning. It's really hard to convince yourself to get out of bed when it's just as dark as it was when you fell asleep.

But yes we got the candy and have really enjoyed it so far! I'm not quite sure when we got it, and honestly I'm still not quite sure how this whole mailing system works. But i know that i get everything!

This past week has been really productive. But first of all i have to tell you that Elder Cramer is getting transferred on Wednesday! Which is disappointing because we never got to baptize together. But he has been her for 4 1/2 months which is a long time, plus we just got done training, so we were kind of expecting it to happen. Now unfortunately something else we are expecting to happen is that i will become a district leader. Because in this district Conway is in the middle, which makes it the district leaders area, and since i've been here for 3 months that will most likely make me the District Leader. Which is scary because that means i will have to do a baptismal interview on Saturday. So i guess we'll see what happens there!

The baptisms that we had set for the 19 have been postponed. But thats okay, Jane had a good excuse on Sunday and she's okay if we move it back to the 26. So cross your fingers for that!
Sunday was great though. Jesse and Holly came and we had our second dinner yesterday with them. They really enjoy church and said that it's like the lessons are directed straight at them every time. Church was extremely special this week because i have been studying the sacrament a lot lately, and sacrament just meant more to me. Which set the mood for the rest of Church. I advise that if anyone wants to get a lot out of church. They should thoroughly study the sacrament.

Haha i have to be honest i am very tired right now. I can't quite type as quickly as i would like, i definitely can't remember everything that i would like. Plus i keep spelling things wrong. But i'm glad that i'm tired, it must mean that i'm doing something right. Or at least i hope thats what it means.

I'm trying to remember what y'all want me to talk about. I can say that i'm doing great, and actually something cool that i've been doing. I took a Book of Mormon and i'm going through it highlighting all of the Christlike attributes. (Faith, Hope, Charity, Love, Obedience, Patience, Humility, Virtue, Diligence, and Hope). That's also something i advise everyone to do. Buy a cheap Book of Mormon and study it with something in mind. It opens your mind to the spirit and you learn things that you didn't know you could.

Sorry that this isn't a long letter. I can't quite get my mind to work correctly at the moment. But know that i love y'all and that i'm doing great!

Love Elder K. Olsen

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Well i have to say that it's been quite the week. We got a new car on monday (toyota corolla 2011), but we got a call on Monday saying that we had to clean it by 9:00, and it was 3:00. We already had some appointments and a dinner with some members. So we got back home at 6:00 and we cleaned like crazy. We completely vaccumed the car (every little spot of it), washed it of course and then had to wax it. Which isn't the easiest thing to do when neither one of us had done it and we had to do it in the dark. But we managed to finish the second they came to pick up the car. So that was a crazy day!

The LTM was great! But i can't say that driving there was. We had to make a detour to Cheraw to pick up another missionary. So we reached Cheraw at 11:30pm and then slept (on the very comfortable floor) then woke up at 5:00am and left at 5:45am. Then it was back to driving. We got to Columbia at 11:30am.
But it was amazing! There were two men their that were recently mission presidents and we learned so much. I was able to see all of my friends in the mtc. We also got a picture taken, which when i get it i will send it to you. In missionary terms it was a picture of my dad, grandpa, and great-grandpa. Which means, me, my trainer, and his trainer, and then his trainer. That doesn't happen very often, but i'm just lucky. Well the meeting lasted until 5:00pm. Then we drove back home, stopping at Cheraw, then going to Conway. Reaching home at 9:30pm. I'm so done with driving.

We had our Halloween Party on saturday. That was crazy. i couldn't believe how many people came. On average there are about 130 people at church every sunday. The party had about 250! We were shaking hands like crazy just trying to meet everyone. There were tons of less actives and plenty of non-members. Even Dede and her daughters came! We didn't get the chance to do our game. Which is okay, we were going to do ninja warrior and it we thought of it that morning. Not the best planning we've ever done but in the end it turned out okay. There was a chili cook off and this italian couple won the spiciest chili, we are going to have dinner with them on Sunday. and they aren't even members. The great thing about being missionaries is that after these occasions we get the priveledge of getting all of the leftovers. So lots of cake, cupcakes, candy, soda, and chili. Which was ironic because we took it all home and then started our fast. But fasting brings blessings!

To answer Morgans question of what missionaries get to do. Well today is our P-day. So we will go shopping, clean the house and car, write letters, proselyte for three hours. Then we are in lockdown for the night. So we will have our own personal party! We've got all the candy and food already.

We have a couple new investigators this week:

Jane: she's and older lady and her daughter is a member. She's going through lots of trial and for a while we just listened to her. Then we were going to read her a scripture about baptism. When we said the word baptism she said, "oh i want to get baptized! i want my whole family to be there too!" I was stunned and almost forgot to put her on date for the 19. Now she didn't come to church, so please pray that we can fix that.

Byron, Kattie, and Byron jr.: This family is golden, we taught them alot about the book of mormon and the importance of baptism. We invited him to be baptized and he said he wanted to make sure he new what he was getting himself into. But he really enjoys the Book of Mormon so i believe that this family is great. Afterward when we stood up to leave Byron was holding his 5 month old baby who looked at me and couldn't stop laughing. Then he would look away and look back and start laughing again. It was so funny, his dad said that he never laughed, he smiled a lot but very rarily does he laugh. So that baby scored me some points.

Faye: She's a very humble grandma. She was a referral from the ward and turns out she's really good friends with Jude Starr! It was cool, she has half a brain (literally), a steel spine (literally), and blind in one eye. Medically speaking she was diagnosed to stop walking back in the 70's. But she was walking around fine! She's also had her car stolen by her friend and her family has been going through a lot. But then she said something that almost made me cry. She said, "Boys, i'll tell you this. You'll will never find a more blessed woman than me." So we'll hopefully see her again soon.

Love y'all

Elder Olsen

The Sun is Shinin!

The sun is shinin!

So i have to say that the weather is perfect down here in the south. It's a little to cold in the morning and at night but during the day it is absolutely perfect. The sun keeps us warm but there's always a nice cool breeze, and then all of the trees are changing colors, so everywhere you go it's all green and yellow and orange and red. It's nice when we have a minute and i can just sit back and stare at the glory of Gods creation.

But as per usual we have been biking a lot. Especially because we get 1050 miles every month. On the 27 we are driving to Columbia for a Leadership Training Meeting and that will eat about 300 of our miles. So it's pretty funny because we had to figure out how to drive less than ten miles to get the groceries today. We figured it out finally and we just have to bike a lot more now.

So the Zone Leaders came out on exchanges with us on Thursday and i got to go with Elder Robinson. Well he is originally a Georgia missionary but when the mission boundaries changed he became a part of this mission. They were definitely taught differently how to contact down there. In the 4 hours i was with him we biked 25 miles, contacted 30 people, and taught 3 half hour lessons, oh and we put two people on date for November 19. The way he taught me to contact was to go straight up to someone and then just ask them a question. Not Hi, how are you today? We would ask things like, Do you ever wonder who wrote the Bible? Or, Why did the Bible end? or, What do you think Jesus Christ expects of you in this life? Honestly these contacts work extremely well, at first people are a little stunned but then they answer the question and we get right into a nice discussion.

At church yesterday it was amazing! We got a new ward mission leader, he is ex-navy and says "roger that" alot. He's a really fun guy, but he also makes sure the work gets done quickly and effectively. We've gone on splits with him a lot and he's a great missionary. We also had 3 non members at church and 8 less actives! Plus we got a page of assignments from the ward council and 5 or more referalls from members! The ward loves us and we have earned there trust. I'm so excited to see how Conway grows, and i really hope i can stay another transfer or two.

Yesterday we biked through a neighborhood and we got sort of nervous. Because the street names were, Civil War rd, Lees Landing, Confederate st. things like that. But we found 4 new investigators anyway and all of the people were actually really nice! It's also funny because they were mostly trailer homes but they were all built up on stilts so they looked like two story trailers. Well they are built that way because they live next to waccamaw river and it floods that high once a year for a day or so. I don't think i would live there, but to each his own.

To answer your questions. Yes we love the Taco Bell gift cards! We eat there quite a bit now even though the employees give us some weird looks because they don't sell gift card in the south. But we have Grandma in our prayers a lot because we are extremely grateful for the wonderful food.

I sent Sadie an e-mail (not the longest one), but HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGAIN!
Thats so great that Jordan has left the states! He's probably so excited right now. Tell his family that he's having the greatest time of his life! Because that's what it should be.

Something i could use though. We talk a lot about family history because a lot of people are interested in that and it's an easy way to bring up the gospel. Well i need some cool family ancestral stories that i could tell to people, and i also want them for myself. Especially some stories about my grandpa James Guy. Because i honestly don't know too much about the man i was named after.

Love Y'all!
Elder K. Olsen

Howdy!

Howdy! (which isn't a word too often used in the south, and when i say it to people they say howdy back.. often sarcastically)

But i am super excited to get all the details about the games. And tell Sammy and Kylee i love their letters and i've tied that green/yellow rope to my backpack for everyone to see.

It's so great to hear that Dad is in the High Council. I'm not really surprised by it just to let you know. Tell Dad i'm proud of him and that if he keeps doing what he does he'll end up in the Stake Presidency. So keep going Dad!
Okay i have approximately 11 minutes to tell you about my week. OH no! only 10!

Okay so whats happened. Well we had our very own Stake Conference in South Carolina and it was a bit different. Instead of walking over to one of the two stake centers so that they could split the stake, we drove about an hour and a half to Florence so that the speakers (two of which were my mission president and his wife) got everyone excited about missionary work so that in three years time we could double the stake. Afterwards Conway ward had a potluck, and let me just say that people in the south know how to cook! It's also amazing how half the food down here i've never heard of. And we thought i wasn't going to a foreign country.

We also had our interviews on friday with President Holm. And let me just say that i have the best Mission President ever, because he just gets me so pumped to go out and work! He just gets super excited when he talks.

So we have some awesome investigators! Lunette, Danisha, Joe, Jerry, Caroline, and a lot more, we got another 15 new investigators this week and I can't even remember all of them now. There's just so many people to work with! Which is a wonderful blessing because Elder Cramer and I were in a rut for a while with not many investigators. I really love missionary work. I can't believe that I'm coming close to the 3 month mark. Time is going by way to quickly and there's still so much to do.

I have a request for everyones birthdays (that's both families please) because I have the months I think. But definitely not the days. But I still love y'all!

Elder K. Olsen

P.S. Still love ya!

We got lots of work done this week!

We got lots of work done this week!
           And ' still plenty more to do :D

First of all that package for the camera would be absolutely wonderful. I just can't get myself to Best Buy and i also don't have a box to send it home in. So yes please. But I'll be sure to take more pictures of 'other than trees' i've wanted to. But it's hard when the camera just won't cooperate.

Let's see what's happened this week. I've already said this before, but it's hard to remember what i've done because so much has happened! Well i'm glad that you got the pictures and were able to see my crazy breakdancing skills. Hopefully you also enjoyed the letters that i sent.

So we have 10 new investigators this week! I'll try to name them all.. Patrice, Baynisha, Legrant, Patrisha, Sarah, John + 6 kids, Ariel, Jessica, and probably a few more. But anyways we've been knocking lots of doors. Which is actually really fun and i don't get nervous doing it anymore. You get to meet lots of nice people, and others... well they're probably nice too. But Elder Cramer and i have just knocked doors around all of our appointments. That would explain all of the new investigators right?

Friday/Saturday was the ward campout. And we had permission from bishop Brock to come to the Saturday lunch. That was so much fun, we got to walk on the beach (Bishop said i could), we played some volleyball, i had 4 hamburgers, then we learned how to filet fish, make dutch oven biscuits, and make garden boxes. But something that was actually successful is we got an appointment with the secretary non-member sister and her family. So super excited for that! The funniest part is the amount of food that they gave us. You ready for this? 40 hamburger patties, 30-40 hot dogs, and then enough buns for all of them! Plus a box of lays snack chips, and ketchup, mustard, relish, and of course a bag of cookies. The missionaries are just a place for leftovers i guess. So yeah, not gonna be hungry for a while.

Church was great, although we were sort of lacking in the investigators that came area. A grand total of zero, or bagel as we say. But still i love going to church, it's just nice to have a place to get away from the world and feel the spirit. One of the young women is in charge of the Halloween party for some project. And we're signed up to make a game! So if you have any good Halloween games that are original, i'm open to advice.

Unfortunately this week we couldn't teach many of our progressing investigators. Although we do have an appointment with Jesse at 6:30 tonight!

Oh i just remembered! We had a dinner with the Singleton family on Thursday! And i mean all of them, there was grandma, her three kids, and 8 grandkids. So it was a very loud dinner, because everyone talks at the same time, and of course they're all talking to us. And half the time i don't think they were speaking english. Let me tell ya, the west and the east have different languages. But we had some home made fried chicken (love it!) and of course home made biscuits, and jumbaliya (probably spelled that wrong) rice.

This weeks going to be fun, because this last week was the most lessons we've ever taught in a week. So our goals are even bigger this week! Plus we have our personal interviews with President Holm. Also they're inspecting our homes and our cars this week. So we're REALLY gonna clean today. And we have Stake Conference in Florence! Which is about an hour away.

One of the Zone Leaders had a random transfer last week. So hopefully the new Zone Leader is just as pumped and excited as the last one. The last Zone Leader (Elder Hightower) has an Uncle in a band that made a tribute CD to missionaries called Work. Well the song 'work' is sung by his Uncle. So Elder Hightower took a line from that song and made it our zone motto. And that is "It takes everyone to get'r done!"

Sorry i don't have quite as much to write down this week. Usually i have some good stories to tell. I'm becoming more accepting of dogs actually. They aren't as frightening as they were a couple months ago. I'm still not to fond of them, but you have to learn to accept them in the south. Especially in the country side when you're riding your bike and it turns out nobody has a clue what a leash is. But still it's fun!

I love y'all and I love hearing from ya!
Elder K. Olsen

P.S. So we would like to make a request. If we could get some Christian soul music that'd be great, like the total baptist, or A.M.E. stuff, because that stuff can bring the spirit, plus it gets us pumped.

P.S.S. Also i don't mind long letters either. I know i don't write them quickly. But i'm like number 5 when i read

New pics from Kyle!!

My helmet that I left on the car then got ran over.

Our drive to zone conference

Entry to our kitchen

Our living room

Our home away from home

Awesome oak tree

At the beach :)

Still at the beach

Elder Cramer...at the beach

Rain!

Elder Cramer

What happened this week...General Conference of course!

Okey Dokey then.

What happened this week... General Conference of course!!! We are lucky enough to get to watch all five sessions, i was so happy to hear all of the great things about missionary work. I'm sure it feels this way for almost everyone. But General Conference felt designed for me. It uplifted my spirit, answered most if not all of my questions, it focused on my life in such a way. That the question comes into my mind, How could those talks be as great as they were, unless they were inspired of God. I beg of everyone to study what was taught, it is modern revelation, The All Knowing God is freely giving us guidance in our lives that can be delivered in a magazine to our front door. But still my favorite part was when President Monson announced the temples and began his talk with "Hello!". I love how he shows by example that we can laugh, be so happy, by living the Gospel.

Unfortunately conference wasn't exactly a 'big party' with a whole bunch of food. Including Elder Cramer and I we had 7 people to the Saturday sessions, maybe 25 to priesthood, and 8 or more for Sunday. Definite improvement could be done, but most people (hopefully) watched it at home. On the bright side, guess who came to the Sunday morning session! Jesse Bloodworth and the family! He's not a member (yet) and came to conference, even though he had a pretty bad cold. It makes me feel bad when i think of my past and all the excuses i made up to not watch conference.

For those who went to priesthood session. Isn't Elder Holland Awesome!!! I love that man, especially when he said "you're gonna get some fire."

So it's starting to get chilly down here in the south. So now it's suit coat season. We now have to wear our suits every day until it gets warm again... I'm glad i have two pairs of suit pants, and actually there's a couple suits that were left behind by past missionaries. One of the suits (sort of) fit me. So that's getting dry cleaned and it's totally mine now.

Elder Scott said something that really hit me, he said "A memorized scripture becomes an enduring friend through the eternities." So I'm going to memorize 30 scriptures this week. It seems like a lot at may overload my brain. But i know it can be done, i've already memorized way over 30 songs in my life. Whats 30 small verses? Plus, i know it will help me in my teaching. If you're interested in the 5 scriptures I'm memorizing today they are: Mosiah 4:9-10, 3 Nephi 14: 9-11, D&C 130: 22, Romans 8:16, 1 John 4: 7-9. I'll let y'all find out what the theme of those are for yourself.

We've been biking like crazy this past week! It was seriously 20-30 miles a day. Haha my legs are dead. Because we only get 1050 miles in the car every month. Well when we drove to zone conference it ate up 230 miles. So we have to make all that up with the bikes. It's funny, we were riding through a trailer park when we passed by some people on their porch. Someone said, "Woo! You gotta get some wd40 on those chains!" It's true too. Our chains are squeaking and grinding, not exactly the most pleasant sounds. But it sure is a way to start a conversation with people!

I got to train a District Development Meeting (DDM) either this week or last week. So that was an interesting experience. I'm the newest missionary of the bunch and i had to train everybody how to use a baptismal calendar. At first i was nervous, but as it turned out i had filled out more baptismal calendars then anyone else. I had only filled out one at that point. But either way i was more experienced. It went great though and when i think back on it, it was actually pretty fun.

Let see here's the updated investigator List:
Jesse Bloodworth: He's doing so awesome! I love this guy and his family. They just have to get married and then he's getting baptized. So pray that they can get all of their legal mumbo jumbo out of the way.
Dede McDonald (or Dede MceeDee): She's seems like she really likes reading the scriptures. She's said that she feels the Holy Ghost when she reads the Book of Mormon and like the path that she's going down with the church. We asked her to be baptized, and she said she'll pray about it. Please pray that she'll pray. We know that she believes everything, she just has to act on her faith.
Randy: Unfortunately did not come to church. We're not too happy with him because he gave us a huge promise. That he would absolutely come to church with us. We showed up at his house at 11:30, and he was asleep. His Dad wouldn't let us wake him up. Even though Randy is probably 50. But our lessons go so well that we cant give up on him. He wants to learn a lot.

Those are the main investigators, so pray that we can find success with them. Also please pray that we can meet out goal and baptize 3 people this month. We're going to try our best.

Time unfortunately is limited so i'll have to stop there. But know that i love y'all and this church is true!

Elder K. Olsen

P.S. Special shout out to Alex Johnson! Those CD's saved our lives! Thank you so So SO much!

How ya'll doing??

So yeah haha...

I didn't write any letters but I felt that I wrote some awesome e-mails. That being said I understand I still need to write, so I will!

But anyway howya'll doin?

I'm starting to get the accent down really well. I don't talk slow and I don't really have a drawl, but it's just the words I say. Yeah, I love it.

A few days ago we were starting the day off like normal, it was super sunny and everything was good. We drove into downtown Conway parked the car and started to ride our bike... directly towards black (not gray) clouds. Then the sun went away, it got windy and then WOOSH! It was raining, instant drenching. But we just kept riding our bikes because it's not like we could get any wetter. We later described our shoes, they were like fishbowls when the water swished back and forth in them as we biked. Luckily all the stuff that I had in my backpack was in a grocery bag (be prepared). Unfortunately my planner was in my pocket and it got destroyed. But lesson learned! We went back home a couple hours later and changed. There is nothing like putting on a pair of dry socks.

It's not that hot here anymore. It's overcast a lot which has also gotten rid of a lot of humidity also. Yes I'm enjoying that.

Ugh. I sit down at the computer and I can't remember whats happened in the past week. I just stare out the window. Oh here's something! I'm super tired! Haha we've been having trouble getting in on time. Not that we're rebels and we're trying to break all the rules. We just have tons of stuff to do and not enough time to do it. Plus when we get home we just lose track of time (even though we both have a watch and there are clocks everywhere). But our curfew is 10:30 and we've been getting in bed at 11:30 (I fall asleep at about 11:30:27). Then I'm awake falling asleep during my morning prayers. Then Elder Cramer says "ready to go running?" I groan and put on my shoes and we go and run. Thats the morning routine.

Jesse came to church yesterday!!! It was perfect for him! Because the talks during sacrament answered his prayers, gospel principles class was about baptism (which answered my prayers), and in elders quorum he made tons of friends! They were inviting him to dinner, and basketball, and to go shooting. And the best part is that we didn't ask any of the members to do that. Later we had dinner at Jesse's house. He made this really good stuff which had, chicken, cheese, mayo, sour cream, other stuff. I had a few helpings of it. But guess what was the appetizer? Come on, guess. Nope! He made fried Okra! Which is actually really good, at least when it's fried. Then after we watched The Prophet of the Restoration with him. It changed his perspective on the church when he really understands Joseph Smiths story. Then for the last part we had a discussion, and bore strong testimony of prayer and the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. He's going to pray about it, and i know he will receive an answer. I love being on a mission!

So there was a baptism in Conway on Saturday. His name is Brother Armando Puga. We didn't baptize him because he was taught by the spanish missionaries. But either way I got to be there and witness a baptism! Yesterday he was confirmed a member of the church. It's amazing to see what just happened with this man. He made a promise with God. He has promised to serve Him and obey His commandments, and God has promised to forgive him of ALL his sins, and has given him the gift of the Holy Ghost -who is the comforter and the spiritual guide of our lives.

I've been reading a lot more in the Bible lately, and I have to say I really regret that I didn't read it a more in the past. There are so many amazing people and stories! My current favorites are either between Paul and Joshua. They were both bold in different ways which is my desire. I want to be bold in speaking and not necessarily in battle like Joshua. If you don't know the story of Joshua then there are 12 really cool war chapters. In those chapters, he destroys Jericho (and many other cities), he splits Jordan River with the Ark of the Covenant, he stops the sun for a battle. Just little things like that. But towards the beginning when the Lord is telling him to prepare for all of this, the Lord says "Have not I commanded thee?" That scripture means a lot to me. Because just like in 1 Nephi 3:7, we can understand that all of Gods commandments are possible. We would Not be asked to do something if our Heavenly Father didn't believe that we could. All we need to do is trust in Him and He will provide a way.

I know that by reading the scriptures and following the counsel of the prophets, who are the mouthpiece of the Lord, that we can find all our answers. Receive help in all our problems. And have happiness, no matter the trials and difficulties in life. The Bible and the Book of Mormon are the word of God. Joseph Smith did see God the Father and Jesus Christ. Through Joseph Smith, Jesus Christ's true and only church has been restored, and his holy priesthood which Joshua used to stop the sun has been returned to this earth today. I know that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet today. He is the Lords mouthpiece and has spoken to the Almighty. Gods commandments are gifts and by following them we can have eternal life, and eternal happiness with our families and our Heavenly Father. And I say this in the Saviors name, our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Elder K. Olsen

P.S. I Love Y'all

Zone Conference

Kyle had his first zone conference a few weeks ago. He mentioned, in his previous letters, how he really enjoyed it. Here are a few things he mentioned...

* No more knocking doors! They talked to the missionaries about relying on the members for help in finding investigators. It helps the new members stay more active once they're baptized if they have friends who have followed them through their conversion. Kyle said he'd still be knocking doors, but they won't have to knock entire streets.

* He was able to listen to Brother Pieper of the 70 talk about the atonement. Kyle mentioned that listening to Brother Pieper really helped increase his testimony of the atonement.

* And I'm sure the best part of zone conference...he was able to pick up a package that his mom had sent him several weeks earlier. All packages have to be sent priority mail, or he has to wait for zone conference to pick them up. Thankfully he didn't have to wait too long :)

Dear Following Persons who are taking time to read this---

Dear Following Persons who are taking time to read this,

Well another week has flown by and i cant believe that its Monday again. Its gotten colder the last few days and i guess after general conference we have to wear our suit every day. So we'll see how that goes! It is a lot nicer to go around biking now that its cold, i'm not sweating like crazy and my energy isn't drained the second i step out the door (okay I'm exaggerating a bit, but still). But hallelujah for that!

Earlier this week i went to a zone conference where we got to hear from Elder Pieper of the 70. Well i think that was this week i hope i haven't told y'all this already... Turns out that was two weeks ago. But if i could tell you one thing about the whole experience is that Elder Pieper has an amazing testimony of the Atonement and it boosted my testimony a lot.

It was a pretty slow week for Elder Cramer and I. We tried really hard but a lot of people canceled on us or just weren't home. But still we found some success!

We spoke with Jesse Bloodworth again. He's doing great! We had a very strong spiritual lesson with him, and we resolved all of the marital issues. It turns out they aren't married because she hasn't been officially divorced yet. But they are planning on getting married once all of that is solved and then he's getting baptized!

The people we didn't see this week: Bro. Pokey, Bro. Philipscheck, Gloria Sarvis, please pray for us this week that we will be able to teach them and that when we do so the spirit will be with us.

We taught Sis. Campbell and it seems that she's golden! Except she will not come to church. Which is one of the biggest things that she needs to do. So please, please, please, pray that she can come to church and that we can help her realize how important church really is.

We have a man on baptismal date for the 15 of Oct! His name is Randy Humes. Unfortunately he didn't come to church either (Aghhh!)
He learns a little slower than others, but he has a strong desire. When we brought up church he said he was going to get his really nice suit cleaned and that he's gonna shave (he's gotta beard), and he said he wants to give fast offerings (he said donation). But his understanding is great because we hadn't talked about any of that stuff. That is pure proof that the Holy Ghost is the real teacher in these lessons!

We are getting fed so much food here! The other day we had a huge dinner complete with awesome potatoes, ribs, steak, salad with home made dressing, then this awesome cinnamon cake! We couldn't eat it all so they sent us home with leftovers. We got home and on our front porch were some meals wrapped in tin foil! We already had a couple meals in the fridge from the day before. I don't think I've gained any weight yet, but i haven't been hungry since I got here either.

I'm going to try really hard to write many letters today. But i don't know how long it takes for my letters to get there.

My camera broke even more so now i can't take any pictures at all. I live far away from the Best Buy and don't have time to go. So should i just send home the camera to you? Because I think it's under your name anyways. But on the bright side i will send home the pictures that I've taken so far with it.... Yes, there's more trees than pictures of people. sorry haha

But i know that this is the true church. I know that the Book of Mormon like the Bible is the word of God and has His teachings. I know that by reading them we can gain a strong testimony. I know Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ, and through him has restored the true church of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christs Atonement happened for us and we are always worthy of it, the atonement happened for the sinners so that we could be forgiven and have true happiness. Don't let the Great Sacrifice go to waste. I love y'all and you are in my prayers.

Love,
       Elder K. Olsen

P.S. Elder Cramer and i need some music. Don't worry we have plenty (plenty) of MoTab (Mormon Tabernacle Choir). We need some other music that brings are thoughts to Christ (that's the requirement of our music). If possible we would like the Prince of Egypt soundtrack. Andrea Bocelli is also amazing (we have the Christmas album and have listened to it a lot, so we're desperate).  Love Ya!

News from Kyle

How y'all doin today!

I looked up that Featherstone talk and he was actually quoting Pres. Kimball. It was about how he predicted that the South would baptize more than any other english speaking mission. That congregations would be baptized. I gotta say. I Really hope i'm there when that happens!

So lets see whats happened. On Monday we had zone conference and we got the privelege to have a 3 hour discussion with Elder Pieper of the 70. It was very spiritual and eye opening to what missionary work is and how we can do better.
Something else is the mission has banned knocking doors! Yay! Now obviously we're allowed to knock doors, but they really want us to work with the members because they are the best way to get people coming to church and those converts will actually stay at church. So we're just not supposed to plan on knocking streets. Which i'm happy to say i'm glad happened, because thats one thing i REALLY couldnt do very well. I said um and uh alot...

So we saw Gloria again. We taught her the entire first lesson and she really enjoyed it. She seemed like she understood everything and more so it seemed that she believed everything we said. The spirit was so strong in that lesson. Now for the problem. We called her to get a return appointment. She told me that she thought what we were doing is great and everything, but she was going to stay with her church. I was able to talk her into another appointment, so we'll see.

Jesse is doing great! I don't know if you know about him but he's living with a recent convert. They aren't married but they already call themselves a family so i'm not to worried about that. Hes already started handing out Books of Mormon to his family and he's not even on date for baptism! The issue is that he likes to go off subject, so we havent really taught him everything. So pray that we can keep on track in our upcoming lessons.

Then there's Bro. Philipscheck. He's really open to all our teachings, and he's been taught since before i got here. He likes the discussions but his wife isnt too thrilled about it. She's super nice but i guess she tried throwing away his Book of Mormon, but he wouldnt allow it! Ha ha i love that family.

Sis. Campbell who is on date, or was. She won't come to church! So pray ALOT for that.

A man named Sandy who we already taught the first lesson we are meeting again today, so i'll give you that update next week.
Those are the main investigators i suppose, so Dad, i hope that answers your REQUEST ;)

Unfortunately i have 8 minutes left on my super fancy library computer so i cant give you all the details. But i do have 6 hours to write letters! and do laundry, and clean, and shop, and car wash, and plan, and nap (yeah right).

So i got a request! Someone should give my facebook page an update; 1) change name to Elder Kyle Olsen, i didn't do that. and 2) put down "This is Elder Olsen and I'm in South Carolina! I cant text or call anyone (and i'm not even the one updating my fb stats, i had to write and tell someone to do this) so i thoroughly enjoy getting letters. So family, friends, facebook friends, and even acquaintances. Send me a letter at (place address here). Thanks Y'all!"
Thanks a ton!

Love (and alot of it)
Elder K. Olsen

P.S. I love y'all!

Howdy Y'All

Short but Very Sweet

Howdy everybody!

As for the language, it's not that different. There's sort of an accent, but I talk stranger than everyone else around i think. Except how some people say 'ax' instead of ask. Or 'skreet' instead of street. But i'm getting used to it. But yes, I am trying to get that southern drawl.

I'm sorta out of it right now and i'm not quite sure what i've written to you and what i haven't. But last night Elder Cramer and I had an amazing experience! After church and dinner and all the study time we're supposed to do. We finally got out of the house at 7:00. Having a total of two hours to go teach, we had zero appointments.So the first lady we saw, her name is Gloria, is a media refferal. Which means that they got on a website or something and ordered an LDS product. Gloria ordered a finding faith in Christ DVD. She recieved one a couple months ago but didn't want to talk to the missionaries at the time. So we've stopped by the house almost every other day and they never answered. We decided to try one last time. We knocked and the door and she yelled "Who is it!?" (something that happens alot here), so of course we responded "The Missionaries!". Then she said that now wasnt a good time. So we decided that we were going to just leave our number on a card and let her call us. As we were writing on the card she opened the door and invited us in.

During our study time we studied something in "The first 12 weeks training program book", which is actually the first time that they are using this book. I'm the guinea pig. But we studied something called teach people, not lessons. It taught us that if we just listened with love, the spirit would fill our mouths with the answers.So with this attitude we went inside to see Gloria. We sat down and we could see the sadness in her life. All we did was listen to her, comfort her, and testify that God loves her and wants to help her. All over her table there were books saying things about how God can help. We can tell that she has been praying for help from God. We are going to see her again tonight and teach her the restoration and how it can help her. But the best part of that "lesson", was the closing prayer we said. We got on our knees, this whole time we had been feeling the spirit. Elder Cramer said the prayer. And all of us cried because we could all feel the Holy Spirit and Gods love for us.

I know that God guides us in our lives as long as we try our best and ask for His help. I will write more in my written letter. But i wanted to share that experience.

Love Y'all,
Elder Olsen

News from Kyle

The last couple of weeks have just been kind of hectic. I landed in South Carolina, got whisked away to the mission home, and then a couple days later i have a companion and I'm out preaching the gospel to people. A little overbearing at first, but now I'm used to the routine and I'm loving every minute of it (except the first few minutes when i wake up).

As for my companion hes from Las Vegas. He has two older sister and an older brother. Hes been out for about nine months now and he has a great desire to get the work done. Hes a perfect trainer for me because hes willing to have fun, and hes not strict in anyway. I don't feel like a trainee but more like a partner. The best thing is that he keeps me focused and on track, because hes serious when he needs to be.

The Hurricane was great! Not the usual answer you hear from people but it was kind of exciting. Obviously we were evacuated because our house is about 15 miles from the beach (although i still haven't been to the beach yet). But we drove an hour inland to a place called Florence. Along with 10 other missionaries. So we had 12 missionaries staying in the apartment, which was fun but i am so glad that I'm back home now. Having that many missionaries was great for gym time we were able to have some awesome basketball games. We got the edge of the Hurricane while we were in Florence. Which I'm happy in a way because, that's not something you want to miss.

So Elder Cramer and i were riding our bikes around knocking on doors. Keeping an eye on the black clouds that were rapidly coming our way (i could be a writer). Then it started to rain a little bit. Which isnt to bad, because I've ridden my bike in the rain plenty of times. But then all of a sudden it REALLY rained. It was like an endless bucket of water was pouring on my head, then it was super windy. Branches were falling off trees (little ones). Luckily a man was standing in his car port and waved us in so that we could wait it our. Since we were in missionary mode we decided to bring up the gospel with him. Evidently he had seen us coming because he pulled out a packet and gave it to us. In big bold letters it said MORMONISM on the top. Automatically i new it was some anti-Mormon stuff. Because people who call it Mormonism are anti-Mormon sadly. So we tried talking to him a bit, new we were getting nowhere and decided to talk about the hurricane instead. I love what i do!

Something else that's great is we have someone set up to be baptized! Shes and older lady and she knows everything that's been taught is true and wants to come closer to Christ by being baptized. Then in that same lesson we gave her two daughters (probably in their late 30s) the book of Mormon and they've started to read! We plan on having them ready for baptism by the end of September. Then there's another man named Jesse who wants to be baptized as well. Unfortunately he cant do that because the girl hes living with he isn't married too. So i cant wait to either tell him that they either have to be married or he has to move out in order to be baptized. Luckily they've been talking alot about marriage, so we shouldn't even have to bring it up. Which is good cause I don't know if a couple 19 year olds can give the best council about marriage. And unfortunately we haven't met with brother Pokey again. But we're going to this week!

Something cool that happened this week that just makes this entire mission fun, is all the kids around here. I'm practically in the ghetto you could say. But all the kids will just walk up and start talking to us. For example the other day we biked over to an apartment complex and it was getting dark so we turned on the lights on our bikes. About 15 kids came up asking if they could try the lights out. In the scriptures Christ says to come unto him as little children. All of those kids were smiling, they were all curious to learn more, they all were laughing and playing around, and they didn't have any worries. They don't care about, politics, or the economy, or the weather, or anything stressful. They just want to smile, laugh, and have fun.

I haven't received your package unfortunately because it wasn't Priority mail. But the package is at the mission home and at the next zone conference i will be able to go get it. I'm just glad there's not anything perishable in there! Ummm, I don't need anything right now that i can think of. Just more letters and pictures! I'm always happy to get those!

Love,
      Elder Olsen

P.S. sooo (ahem) there was an accident with the camera, it still takes pictures but doesn't really zoom.... how can i replace that again?
P.S.S. I LOVE Y'ALL!

President and Sister Holm

We received this letter from Kyle's Mission President today. I think the smile on Kyle's face says it all, he is obviously thrilled to be a missionary. On a separate note...Kyle is crazy tall compared to Brother and Sister Holm :)

First letter from South Carolina!

Well i'm here! South Carolina is great, there are trees everywhere! And the trees are so tall, i mean people tell you that its really green, but its REALLY green. Another sure fact about SC is that it is humid. I dont remember the last time i sweated enough that there were drops of sweat, now i cant remember a time when i wasnt sweating that much. In case you havent gotten my (short, sorry about that) letter, i got a bike! An elder who was leaving gave it to me and im loving it, i have to fix it a little bit but thats because it has two years of ware and tare. I even got a helmet from him. Unfortunately that helmet was left on the back of the car one day and now its a pancake on the highway. So that was a bummer, today is our Pday though (obviously) and i just got a new helmet, and groceries, and shaving cream (i was told not to bring shaving cream on the plane cause it could explode, so i left it and the past few days ive been shaving without cream. Not fun). Youd be proud of me mom, Elder Cramer (ill talk about him in a bit) and I ride our bikes about 10 miles a day. So my left calf is kinda stiff, so from one biker to another do you have any advice?

Anyway Elder Cramer is my trainer. Hes awesome hopefully i can have his confidence one day. Something funny though is that he sounds exactly like uncle Josh, and when i say he sounds like it i mean his laugh is the same and everything. Kind of a twilight zone vibe, but anyway im glad hes my trainer cause we just get along really easily (hes a pokemon and an angry beaver fan). On the spiritual side he know alot. He teaches me how i can become better, and it works ive been doing some alright door approaches.

If you havent gotten my letter, im in Conway, the ward is great. They just want to help us so much and our dinner schedule is full up to two weeks. Literally we have too much food. Oh! and our house (yes house not apartment), is sweet. A member had an extra house and gives it to the missionaries. Weve got a washer drier, four couches, a kitchen, bedrooms, bathroom, its overall just a perfect setup.

Im really learning alot and i love the people here, they all go to a different church but thats ok we're working on that. It is nice that everyone knows about Jesus Christ. Its unfortunate that theyre not really following him. Everyone is kind of stubborn when we bring up the Book of Mormon. Because they think so many things about it, we cant really explain. But people slam the doors very politely, they say no and then tell us to keep up the good work. And we get lots of water from them, because everyone feels we're doing a good thing. Its amazing how many churches are down here, literally think of all our church buildings in utah. Well SC has that many buildings but they are all different religions.
The only thing im not to fond of about is that everyone has a dog. I dont know why, they arent that great. But everyone has one. Actually there was one funny experience. We went to a house who had two of the nicest dogs ive ever met. The man gave us some water and told us to keep up the work. Then the dogs followed us door to door, they didnt bark or jump. They just ran next to us on our bikes, then waited in some shade while we knocked on the doors. At the end of that street we found a really nice family who invited us back. So cross your fingers!

Ive only taught two official nonmember lessons. The one i want to tell you about is a man named Matt, but everyone calls him Pokey. So we taught Pokey a lesson, hes 53 and very humble. He loves to read and to learn and i really hope that we'll get him. But the greatest thing about that lesson was Elder Cramer (i love him!) asked Pokey if we could call him Brother Pokey. Then i got to say the closing prayer and i got to say Brother Pokey in a prayer. The excitement you feel when you walk away from a good lesson where the person wants to learn more is unexplainable. Its just pure happiness that we were able to help some one come closer to Christ.

My mission president, President Holm. Is a very straight forward guy, i love it. He sorta talks like pres. Bush, but what he talks about makes sense. Here are some quotes "Pep in your step!" "Fire in your belly!" "im a finisher" "I love tough things, i am first to do tough things, i do tough things first" And his missionary scripture for everyone is Jacob 6:12 (i'll let you all look that up). Our mission is really great and we all have a really big drive for baptism. The entire mission goal is 100 baptisms a month. Right now we are at 67 and people are put on date every single day. Hopefully i can find one, because i still agree with my missionary scripture Alma 29:9.

I sent my camera card to my mom so if you could find out if she got it thatd be great. Because i forgot to put a sending address on it, which is a bummer cause thats all my mtc pictures. But i just want to make sure that everyone knows that i am fine and doing better every day. Time seems to fly by and i'll be home before you know it! But at this point i have to be honest, i hope it doesnt come to fast.

Love, Elder K. Olsen

P.S. there are 3 Elder Olsens' in SC, so tell everyone that it has to be Elder K. Olsen please.

Kyle at the MTC

We got our first pics of Kyle and his friends at the MTC.  Looks like there was plenty of time for play!

Elder Olsen and friends at Provo Temple. This is about the ONLY normal picture of him from the batch of photos he sent.

Elder Fugal (Elder Olsen's companion at the MTC)

Elder Olsen "climing the walls"

Not really sure what is happening here.

Might have something to do with sleep deprivation?

Super Missionaries!

There are lots of pics like this one with him playing with his camera!

Elder Olsen (second row, far left) and friends at Provo Temple